Elite school’s OSHC cops hefty fine after 6yo kids wandered off

An elite Brisbane school Outside School Hours Care service has been fined after students were left unsupervised and two young children left the site, found kilometres away on a busy main road.

Two young students were found walking a busy main road more than two kilometres from the service. Picture: File photo/Thinkstock

An elite Brisbane school Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service has been slapped with a $15,000 fine after staff at the service left students unsupervised and two young children left the premises for over an hour.

The service was fined in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Tuesday, after an incident in October 2022 when two six-year-old children in the care of the school’s OSHC left the service centre when they were unsupervised.

The children had walked 2.3km from the service and were found crossing a busy main road before members of the public reported the sighting to the service.

A statement from the department of education said the fine reflected the “seriousness of these offences”.

“These types of incidents could result in a child’s serious injury or death,” the statement said.

As the Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, the department of education prosecuted the service’s provider for failing to protect children from harm or hazard, inadequate supervision and children leaving the education and care service.

Magistrate Michael O’Driscoll acknowledged the children were unsupervised for over an hour, that the lack of supervision resulted in them leaving the service, that it was only fortunate that the children were not injured, and that - but for a member of the public - they could have continued to be undetected.

Mr O’Driscoll recognised the seriousness of the offences, however, considered the approved provider’s early guilty plea, lack of criminal history and cooperation with the Regulatory Authority.

The department of education’s statement said the Regulatory Authority would continue to work with the early childhood sector to promote supervision and safe environments for children, and had released an educational video specifically to raise service awareness of the risks associated with incidents of this kind.

Originally published as Elite school’s OSHC cops hefty fine after 6yo kids wandered off