In the Road Rules – Victoria, school zones were defined and described at r 23. Under the Road Safety Road Rules 2009 school zones are gone but a similar rule has been inserted at r 317A,

317A Traffic control devices applying on school days

(1) If information on or with a traffic control device indicates that it applies on school days, it only applies—

(a) on a declared school day; or

(b) on any day indicated to be a school day by information on or with the traffic control device.

Note

Rule 317 provides that information on or with a traffic control device may indicate the times, days or circumstances when it applies or does not apply.

* Example *

The following sign applies—

• on declared school days, but not on other days unless information on or with the sign indicates that it is a school day at that place; and

• at the times indicated on school days, but not at other times.

Note that a sign may have a different number on the sign—see rule 316(4) of these Rules.

(2) For the avoidance of doubt, subrule (1) does not limit or extend the effect of a traffic control device that does not have other information on or with that traffic control device.

* Example *

The following sign is not restricted to certain times or days and applies whenever it is displayed.

(3) In this rule—

declared school day means any day that falls within a period declared by the Corporation, by notice in the Government Gazette, to be a school days period for the purposes of this rule, and that is not one of the following—

(a) a Saturday or a Sunday; or

(b) a day appointed under the Public Holidays Act 1993 as a public holiday in the place in which the traffic control device is located.

Note

Different schools have different terms. For this reason, a declared school days period may include days or weeks when many schools are open although some are closed. For the same reason, information on or with a traffic control device may indicate that it is a school day at that particular place even though the day is not in a declared school days period because most other schools are closed at that time or is a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday.

Note

Traffic control device is defined in the dictionary.

The relevant gazette is Government Gazette S 396, published on 9 November of last year. It contains a table of the declared school days for 2010:

School Days Period 1 = 27 January 2010 to 26 March 2010

School Days Period 2 = 12 April 2010 to 25 June 2010

School Days Period 3 = 12 July 2010 to 17 September 2010

School Days Period 4 = 4 October 2010 to 17 December 2010

These days are school days unless there is local signage that says otherwise.