The Special Education Working Group (SEWG) held its first meeting for 2025 on 10 March 2025.

The Committee had an extremely busy agenda with the following items discussed:

Expression of Interest SEWG Committee Member

The PSA SEWG Committee represents School Learning Support Officers (SLSO) and School Learning Support Officer Student Health Support (SLSO SHS) members from all over NSW.

The Committee comes from diverse settings which include Schools for Specific Purposes, units, mainstream classrooms, Hospital Schools, city and regional areas, high schools and primary schools. The structure of the Committee must represent all our SLSO and SLSO SHS members.

The Committee has identified that the PSA needs stronger representation from Juvenile Justice and SLSO SHS and is calling for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for these positions.

If you are interested in putting forward an EOI for the above vacancies, please email Organiser Ann Attwater at  addressing the following:

1. Your worksite: SLSO Juvenile Justice or SLSO SHS
2. A brief biography
3. Your activity as a PSA member (attending meetings, recruiting colleagues etc.)
4. Confirmation that you are available to attend four meetings a year at PSA House (paid release provided) and other PSA and DoE meetings throughout the year
5. Length of time in your classification

Please note, your school will not be charged for your release.

Please email your EOI to  by close of business Wednesday 9 April 2025.

Incident reporting

The SEWG would like to remind all members it is mandatory to report incidents.

An incident is an event that creates a danger or risk to self or students that could significantly affect the health, safety, and well-being of individuals and cause major disruption, and or impact on the effective operation of workplaces. These may include, but are not limited to, spitting, kicking, hitting and near misses. It is also imperative that psychological incidents are reported as this can have a detrimental impact on your well-being.

The incident hotline number is 1800 811 523. 

Members are reminded to contact the PSA Member Support Centre on 1800 772 679 if they require support or assistance.

Assisted Transport (buckling of students)

The Committee has received inquiries and concerns from members about the role of the SLSO and assisted transport. Members are concerned they are being asked to secure students into vehicles for various reasons, including lack of training, supervision, working outside of paid hours and that it is not contained in their Statement of Duties.

The PSA has written to the Department to clarify any confusion and is seeking to meet to resolve these issues.

SLSOs are not directly involved in the program’s service delivery. They usually accompany the student to and from the vehicle at the school end of travel. The school is responsible for securing students in the vehicle and the PSA position is that this should not be the SLSO.

The union will keep members updated on discussions with the Department on this important issue.

If you are concerned with securing students, please contact your PSA Organiser or the PSA Member Support Centre on 1800 772 679 to arrange a meeting at your school with all SLSOs.

Student Health Support: Essential requirement

It has been brought to the Committee’s attention that, without consultation with the PSA, a new Statement of Duties for SLSOs was published on the Department of Education website in 2022. The Committee would like to remind members that the SLSO and SLSO SHS roles remain distinct and separate and that Health Support Training is not compulsory for all SLSOs.

The union has raised this directly with the Department and will report back to members as discussions progress.

Administration of medication and the SLSO SHS role

The committee would like to remind members that where a student requires ongoing and regular support with first aid and administration of medication relating to diabetes management, where the student will always be unable to undertake independently or require regular or routine administration of medication rectally or via injection, not just in an emergency, an SLSO SHS should be engaged.