School had no-crutches policy

July 2017

Milly* has spina bifida. She needed to use crutches after a series of operations, but when she was ready to return to school, she was told the school had a no-crutches policy so she couldn’t come back. 

Milly’s father lodged a complaint on her behalf to ADNSW.

The school agreed that it had a no-crutches policy but said this was on the advice of a Work Health and Safety consultant. They said they were later advised that this policy was inappropriate, and they immediately let Milly return to school and apologised to her parents. 

The school said that Milly had only missed three days because of the policy, but this was disputed by her family. Milly’s father said there had been other occasions during her treatment when Milly could have gone to school, but they didn’t send her because the no-crutches policy was in place.

The school said they would immediately apply for emergency funding to make modifications to the school, so it was safer for Milly to attend. However, Milly’s father had already enrolled her in another school, with significant additional costs.

At the conciliation conference, the school’s representatives apologised unconditionally and agreed to pay financial compensation to go towards Milly’s schooling.

*Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual.