This paper examines how education policy has been mediated at a representative number of South African schools from 1997 to 2003, using the structure, symbolic, human resource and political frames of Bolman and Deal (1997) as its basis. The study had diverse research findings. On the one hand it found that the majority of representative councils of learners had received the full support of the main role players. These councils were fully functional and were making a significant contribution to the effective governance of their schools. On the other hand there were significant numbers of representative councils of learners which were not receiving the requisite support, and which were merely tolerated to ensure legal compliance. The challenges preventing the development of education policy into praxis at these schools are threefold: technical, cultural and political. Suggestions are made as to how these varied and complex challenges can be met in the interest of furthering the democratic goals that underpin RCL policy