If you’re unhappy with a decision or action by the department or its staff and it impacts you, let us know. We do our best to respond to customer complaints quickly and fairly in a way that is compatible with human rights.
You can find more information in our:
How to make a complaint
The best place to raise any concerns is where the issue arose.
If your complaint is about a school, contact the school directly using the contact information on the
Schools Directory. The
making a customer complaint information sheet for parents and carers (DOCX, 95KB) contains more information about school-related complaints. The
child-friendly complaint form (PDF, 357KB) is also available for children, students or young people who would like to make a complaint.
You can also make a complaint by contacting Queensland Government on 13 QGOV (13 74 68) or via the
contact us page.
You can remain anonymous when making a complaint, however, this could make it hard to deal with your complaint and may mean we cannot let you know the outcome.
After making a complaint
After you make a complaint, we will let you know we have received your complaint and will contact you if we need any more information.
We will try to respond to your complaint within 30 days. If your complaint is about a school, this means 30 school days in a school term, rather than business days.
Sometimes, we may need more time to deal with your complaint. If this occurs, we will let you know.
If your complaint involves human rights or a privacy complaint, we will respond to your complaint in 45 days.
What to do if you are not happy with the outcome of the complaint or how it was managed
If you are unhappy with how your complaint has been managed or the outcome of your complaint, you can ask for an
internal review. You have 20 days to request an internal review after you receive the outcome of your complaint.
To ask for an internal review, you can use the
request for internal review form (DOCX, 97KB) or call the area that managed your original complaint. It is important to tell us why you think the original decision was unreasonable or unfair and what action you would like taken. We will try to respond to your internal review within 20 days.
If after the internal review you are still unhappy, you can ask for an
external review from an authority such as the
Queensland Ombudsman or
Queensland Human Rights Commission.
Complainant responsibilities
If you make a complaint to a school or another part of the department, it is your responsibility to:
- be respectful and understand that unreasonable, abusive or disrespectful conduct will not be tolerated
- give us all relevant information about your issue and your desired solution
- understand that addressing a complaint can take time
- let us know if something changes, including if help is no longer needed.
The department may not proceed with your complaint if your conduct is unreasonable.