One such parent is Rob Keldoulis,the president of Bondi Beach Public School P&C,who spoke out on behalf of staff at the school.He said teachers often felt there was a conflict of interest risk when complaints about principals went to regional directors because the two worked closely together.

"Going back through the principals is obviously illogical,"he said."It's a line of reporting with no external accountability. If the principal is the accused bully,it goes to the area director,who they know well. That is not a system with checks and balances."

Lynda Monterio-Wallace,the convener of the Eastern Suburbs P&C Alliance said the process was not working."I think the best solution to the problems plaguing EPAC is to have an independent complaints process that is transparent,and outside the department."

But Secondary Principals Council acting president Craig Petersen said it was appropriate for principals and DELs to deal with teachers'bullying complaints."They are really well placed,they know the schools,"he said.

"If a staff member ... believes there has been a conflict of interest,they can escalate that. There are provisions on the department's website. We need to trust our directors to do their job professionally,and if they don't do that,there's processes to deal with it."

A spokesman for the Department of Education said workplace bullying would not be tolerated,and any allegation was dealt with professionally and transparently under an established complaints process.

"Each senior officer dealing with a complaint must follow the department’s code of conduct,which deals specifically with potential conflicts of interest and how to deal with them,"he said. Allegations that constituted serious misconduct went to EPAC.

External assessment of investigation and complaint handling by the department is available through a number of agencies,including the NSW Ombudsman.

Mr Tedeschi's review found EPAC should be kept in-house,a conclusion supported by NSW Teachers Federation Maurie Mulheron,who said the issue of bullying in schools was complicated."A perception of being bullied doesn't necessarily mean it's bullying,"he said."Being asked to do something reasonable is not bullying.

"Given the size of the workforce,there will be poor behaviour and there will be people acting in unreasonable ways. There needs to be work done by the department in terms of defining what it is."

A bullying tool developed by EPAC in 2016 said reasonable requests,discussions about unsatisfactory performance,and lower-level interpersonal conflict do not constitute bullying.