Parents of child with autism who was locked in a school bike yard by a staff member are demanding to know why they were not informed until almost three months later, despite it being serious enough to warrant three separate investigations.
The parents were told that on May 7 their son, who is Indigenous, climbed into an unlocked outdoor bike storage facility at his ACT public primary school.
For reasons that are unclear, a staff member then locked the bike yard. After a period of time, the boy climbed out of the facility.
An Education Directorate spokesman said the school reported the incident to the directorate by email at the time and submitted a report into the work health and safety system, known as Riskman.
The current school principal only told the family of the child about the incident on July 31 following inquiries from The Canberra Times.
Since receiving questions last week, the incident has been reported to three separate bodies for investigation - the Senior Practitioner, the ACT Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission.
The parents of the child involved said they would not have known about the incident if it wasn't for the media inquiry.
"Nobody would have ever told us what happened," the child's mother said.
"Someone needs to be held accountable."
In a written response on May 7, the directorate spokesman said the child climbed in and out of the outdoor, fenced-off bike yard under staff supervision. He would not confirm whether the child had been locked in.
The spokesman said it had been reported to the Senior Practitioner and Ombudsman and the Education Minister had requested the Human Rights Commission to review the directorate's handling of the incident.
"The Education Directorate welcomes the opportunity to engage in the review and any feedback to continue to improve our practices and approaches.
"We are very conscious of the wellbeing of the child and family in this matter. For privacy reasons, the Education Directorate will not be providing public comment on the details of the individuals involved."
The parents said they applied for their child to attend a disability specialist school but had been denied entry because of a change in eligibility criteria.
"If you couldn't cater for such a high-needs child you should have said so," the mother said.
"He won't be going back. I've lost all trust in that school. How do I know that nothing else has happened to my son?"
The directorate spokesman said it would continue to work closely with the family to ensure the most appropriate schooling could be provided for their child.
The incident was referred to the Senior Practitioner because it could constitute the use of restrictive practices.
This watchdog position was put in place following a 2015 incident where an ACT public school installed a cage to manage the behaviour of an autistic boy.
Restrictive practices limit a person's rights or freedom of movement and are used to manage behaviour that could harm the person or others.
However, restrictive practices can cause injury and psychological harm and under human rights laws can only be used if they are reasonable and clearly justifiable.
Restrictive practices can only be deemed reasonable if there was an immediate risk to someone's safety and the action was taken in the least restrictive way.
The office of the Senior Practitioner works within the Community Services Directorate.
The ACT Ombudsman is responsible for investigating allegations of child abuse or misconduct towards children.
All directorates and other organisations that provide services to children are required to report these allegations to the Ombudsman under the reportable conduct scheme.
The ACT Human Rights Commission handles complaints regarding a range of human rights concerns including the conduct of services for children and young people and abuse, neglect or exploitation of vulnerable Canberrans.
'Serious breach of trust': calls for change after child locked in bike cage
ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations executive officer Veronica Elliott said the council was "extremely disappointed and disturbed" that a student may have be subject to a restrictive practice.
"Parents also have every right to expect they will be notified of incidents involving their child in an honest and timely way," Ms Elliott said.
"Anything less is a serious breach of the trust parents place in our schools every day."
"The use of restrictive practices is strictly regulated and needs to adhere to the law. We will await the findings of the investigations taking place to see how the ACT public education system can do better."
Ms Elliot said parents of students with disabilities spent hours advocating for the needs of their children. She said the council wanted to see an independent complaints system created so that schools did not handle complaints about themselves.
She said the ACT government should trial a parent advocacy service to help families of children with disabilities and complex behaviours navigate the education system.
"Our community and government must do more to support our most vulnerable students and their families."
ANALYSIS: Process failed in case of autistic Indigenous child locked in bike yard
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee had a briefing with the Education Minister on the incident. She said it was a very distressing situation for the family and the child.
"The fact that the parents weren't notified immediately is of considerable concern and as a parent I can only imagine the distress this has caused them," Ms Lee said.
"Obviously there has been a significant break down in the reporting process at the school and there are serious questions about how this failure happened.
"I understand a number of external reviews are currently underway and we will be keeping a close watch on the outcome of this process."
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Ms Lee said the main focus should be making sure that the family and young child were receiving the support they needed.
The Canberra Times revealed three separate investigations have been launched into an incident where a child with autism climbed into a bike cage and was locked in by a staff member.
The referrals to the Chief Practitioner, the ACT Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission were only made after the Education Directorate received questions about the incident from this masthead.
The parents of the child involved were told of the incident on July 31 following media inquiries, despite the incident occurring on May 7.
The child's parents said they had lost trust in the school and wanted the directorate and school to be accountable for what happened to their child.