Rural and Remote Education Inquiry Briefing Paper
Rural and Remote Education Inquiry Briefing
Paper
School Education for Students with
Special Needs
- Overview
- A child's right to education
- Australia's Disability Discrimination
Act
- Rural and remote schools -
Issues raised in the inquiry
- Further reading
In 1993 there were 470,000 people under 25 years with
a disability in Australia and an estimated 62,000 students with a disability
in schools (ABS 1993).
What is a disability?
A disability may be physical, intellectual, sensory,
neurological or psychiatric. A person may also have multiple disabilities.
There are also different ways of defining disability.
The federal Disability
Discrimination Act 1992 defines disability
as
- Total or partial loss of physical or mental functions
- Total or partial loss of part of the body; or
- The presence in the body of organisms causing disease
or illness; or
- The presence in the body of organisms capable of
causing disease or illness; or
- The malfunction, malformation or disfigurement
of a part of a person's body; or
- A disorder or malfunction that results in the person
learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction;
or
- A disorder, illness or disease that affects a person's
thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgements or
that results in disturbed behaviour (section 4).
The above broad definition of disability will be used
for the purposes of the National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education.
Disability funding criteria may not always match this definition. For
example, a condition such as dyslexia may be defined by a government service
as a 'learning difficulty' rather than a disability, which may determine
access to specialised support for a student with this condition.
What type of education exists for school students
with a disability?
School education for students with disabilities is
provided in a range of settings throughout Australia, including rural
and remote areas. All State and Territory education policies affirm that
a range of settings and services will be provided which includes
- special schools
- special units in regular schools
- support for placement in regular classes.
Distance education and home schooling may also be
an option for students with disabilities in rural areas.
However, access to the variety of schooling available
is limited by various factors, including the type of disability and geography.
Government policies and programs for students with
disabilities
The Commonwealth and all State and Territory governments
have specific policies and programs for the education of school students
with disabilities. The various departments of education have primary responsibility
for the education of students with disabilities, although other departments,
for example health departments, provide essential services which impact
on their education.
Education department policies specify that specialist
assistance and support is available for all students who are defined
as having a disability, regardless of place of residence. However, there
is limited targeted assistance for geographically isolated students with
disabilities. There are also no specific policies or programs for geographically
isolated Indigenous students with disabilities.
Most State and Territory policies recognise that many
students with disabilities will wish to attend mainstream schools. The
various education departments have responsibility for ensuring that students,
parents and teachers are adequately supported if they choose this option.
At the same time special units and special schools remain a central part
of all special education policies and programs. However, the extent to
which these options are supported differs by State and Territory.
For more information on Commonwealth, State and Territory
policies and programs for students with disabilities go to
- Summary
of Commonwealth, State and Territory policies and programs presented
in the inquiry
- departments of education websites
Wales Department of Education and Training
of Education
Department of Education, Training and Employment
Queensland
Department of Western Australia
Education in Tasmania
of Education and Community Services
Territory Department of Education
right to education
Australia has obligations to provide education for
children with disabilities under international human rights law.
The most comprehensive international document on the
rights of children with disabilities is the United Nations Convention
ratified by Australia in 1990. This covers
the rights of children under 18 years of age.
According to article 23(1) of the Convention, children
with disabilities have the right to all the support necessary to become
as self-reliant as possible.
1. States Parties recognize
that a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and
decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance
and facilitate the child's active participation in the community.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child,
article 23(3), also provides that children with disabilities must be ensured
access to education.
3. Recognizing the special needs of a disabled
child, assistance extended in accordance with paragraph 2 of the present
article shall be provided free of charge, whenever possible, taking
into account the financial resources of the parents or others caring
for the child, and shall be designed to ensure that the disabled child
has effective access to and receives education, training, health care
services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and
recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the child's achieving
the fullest possible social integration and individual development,
including his or her cultural and spiritual development.
Articles 28 and 29 discuss every child's right to
education and the nature of that education including that education be
'directed to development of the child's personality, talents and mental
and physical abilities to their fullest potential' (article 29(1)).
The Convention
against Discrimination in Education
prohibits discriminatory practices in every facet of education. It also
outlines specific proactive measures that States Parties must take to
ensure compliance with the Convention.
The rights of people with disabilities are emphasised
in the Declaration
on the Rights of Disabled Persons. While
not binding in international law, Declarations such as this one persuasively
illustrate the standard to which the United Nations believes countries
should aspire.
- Disabled persons are entitled to the measures
designed to enable them to become as self-reliant as possible.
6. Disabled persons have the right to .
education, vocational training and rehabilitation . and other services
which will enable them to develop their capabilities and skills to
the maximum and will hasten the process of their social integration
or reintegration.
The Declaration
on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons safeguards the rights
of those with intellectual disabilities. The provisions most pertinent
to education are articles 1 and 2.
1. The mentally retarded person has, to
the maximum degree of feasibility, the same rights as other human
beings.
2. The mentally retarded person has a right
to proper medical care and physical therapy and to such education,
training, rehabilitation and guidance as will enable him to develop
his ability and maximum potential
In 1993 the United Nations General Assembly adopted
Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
They are the most detailed international norms for people with disabilities
to be developed as yet. The Standard Rules reaffirm the principle of equal
opportunity for children with disabilities and outline the nature of that
education more comprehensively than the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. Rule 6 deals specifically with education.
6. States should recognize the principle
of equal primary, secondary and tertiary educational opportunities
for children, youth and adults with disabilities, in integrated settings.
They should ensure that the education of persons with disabilities
is an integral part of the educational system.
Although these Standard Rules are not legally binding,
they demonstrate a commitment amongst UN member states to education for
people with disabilities.
Australia's Disability Discrimination Act 1992
In Australian legislation, the federal Disability
Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) and State and Territory anti-discrimination
legislation protect students from discrimination on the ground of disability.
A student with a disability, or his or her parent,
can complain to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission if
he or she believes discrimination has been experienced at school or
in accessing school. The Commission will decide whether the complaint
comes under the Act and, if so, will attempt to conciliate between the
student and the school. If conciliation does not work, a hearing can
be held to decide the case.
Not all treatment which is different is unlawful.
It is not unlawful to establish an educational institution wholly or
primarily for students with a particular disability (DDA section 22(3)).
Nor is it unlawful for a special measure to be provided to meet the
special needs of a person with a disability (DDA section 45(a)-(c)).
The DDA also permits schools or other educational
institutions to argue that having to make adjustments for a student
with a disability would constitute an 'unjustifiable hardship'. This
argument will be considered on the basis of what is reasonable as illustrated
in the case of Finney
(1999).
In addition to the complaints process, the DDA includes
a provision for the Attorney-General to formulate Standards. These Standards
may be in the areas of public transport, employment, education, accommodation
and a number of other areas covered by the Act. Standards provide an
opportunity to set time lines in place for achieving equal access for
people with disabilities. They can also set out in a clearer and more
detailed manner the requirements implicit in the DDA. Once Standards
are developed and enacted by Parliament, compliance with the Standards
is mandatory. Disability Standards in Education are being developed
under the auspices of a Taskforce of the Ministerial Council on Education,
Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).
raised in submissions to the inquiry
All students living in rural and remote areas are
forced to live with the constraints imposed by distance, especially those
in remote and isolated areas. The inquiry heard a number of times of how
this affects travel to school, opportunities for inter-school collaboration,
access to specialised support and teacher training, provision of school
equipment and limited choice of schools, among others. These problems
are often multiplied in the case of education for students with disabilities.
In 1997, the National Children's and Youth Law Centre
(NCYLC) conducted research on disability discrimination in schools. In
their survey of parents, students and others, problems mentioned as specific
to rural areas were
- lack of choice in schools
- distance involved if a special school or special
unit was required by the student but not available in close proximity
to home
- difficulty in attracting and keeping skilled teaching
staff and aides in country areas
- difficulty for or reluctance of staff to access
city-based training opportunities
- shortage or lack of therapists and visiting specialists
- lack of advocacy services or disability support
organisations
- inequity in funding distribution formulae (Flynn
1997, page 39).
Many of these issues were also raised in hearings
and submissions to the inquiry.
Transport
Children in remote and isolated areas often have to
travel long distances to school. This is difficult for all children but
especially for many children with disabilities. Changes to school bus
routes can have a major impact on these students.
In these days of what is termed efficiency
and cost cutting, changing and both traditional and highly mobile
populations, small schools are under threat of closure and bus routes
are being redefined. Consequently many students still endure long
hours on buses to and from school. This is not easy for any child,
but most difficult for the student with complex health and or behavioural
issues and most difficult for students who struggle for social belonging
or who are in particular need of tolerance and special care. Current
'take home' management strategies cause rural families extra-ordinary
additional costs if they have to travel long distances to collect
a child who has reportedly acted out at school (submission 89,
Annette Herbert, Inclusive Education Network, SA).
A number of submissions to the inquiry raised the
need for school buses to be made accessible for children with mobility
needs.
City dwellers who have a disability have access,
although sometimes limited, to specific transport services. This access
includes accessible buses, access taxis and some community buses.
In rural communities transport can be quite specific barrier, with
no provision between the location of a student with disabilities home
and the education setting of either the families or the educators
recommendation. The best option is often out of reach because of lack
of accessible transport (submission 89, Annette Herbert, SA).
Transport can be an issue in terms of the availability
of a wheelchair accessible bus for the inclusion of children with
disabilities on school outings and field trips (submission
106, WA).
My daughter has a disability and she has a
wheelchair. One problem we have is the modification of buses. She
is getting too heavy to lift into the car (she is 14 years old). She
is also unable to go on school excursions. The Education Department
says that it is not their responsibility. Well whose responsibility
is it? At Fitzroy Crossing we have only one modified bus and that
is used every day for Aged Care. We don't have any modified taxis.
I have also been trying to get my daughter into a boarding school
in Perth but I have not been able to find one that can cater for her
needs (Fitzroy Crossing Community Meeting, WA, 19 May 1999).
When parents need to send their child to school out
of the local area, it can be difficult to get transport assistance even
though there are limited alternatives available for the family.
Transport has been a huge issue for our family.
When my child started Giant Steps I drove him to Deloraine each day
for a year with my younger child. Then when my younger child started
school it was too hard to continue with the travel for the 2 of them.
There is no school bus for her and I could not get to Deloraine. I
withdrew my son and put him back at the special school but they could
not cope with him. When we wanted to go back to Giant Steps the government
told us to get in a car pool. Disability Services does not do transport.
It became a pitched battle for us to get him into the only program
that had made a difference for him and for us. We put him in respite
service for 6 weeks. They soon realised that he was not the kind of
kid who could be transported by car pool and they gave us some money.
There was no understanding that he has a right to specialist education
(Devonport public meeting, Tasmania, 3 November 1999).
Choice of school
Distance limits the choice of schools to some extent
for all students in rural and remote areas, but for students with disabilities
this choice is further limited. For a student with a disability it may
be more difficult to travel further away to attend another school in a
neighbouring area, whether a specialist school, a private school, or another
state school. Boarding school in a far off city may not be a viable option
for many children with disabilities. If the closest and most appropriate
school becomes unsuitable for any reason, the student with a disability
may have no other option but 'grin and bear it', or for the whole family
to move to another area.
As one parent of a 9 year old girl with an intellectual
disability told the NCYLC survey
In a country town there is no choice where
we go to school and no-one is there to advise and support us. We have
to "take it or leave it" (Flynn, page 39).
The mother of a 10 year old boy with a physical disability
pointed out in the same survey that due to limited options students may
have to attend school many kilometres away from home in rural areas.
We elected to send our son to a special school
as he became so unhappy in an integrated setting. The closest school
was 45 miles away. It refused enrolment because our son did not have
an intellectual disability. The school where he was forced to move
to is 135 miles away. There was no special school near home. My child
can now not live at home during the week (Flynn 1997, page 16).
In one submission to the National Inquiry into Rural
and Remote Education, the parent of a child with Down's Syndrome in Victoria
described her attempt to send her child to the nearest State secondary
school, 32 kms away from their home. After encountering repeated difficulties
at the school, including lack of understanding from a number of staff
of the needs of her child, she felt that her son was no longer safe in
the school and withdrew him. He is now attending a Special School which
means a round trip of 200kms a day. She writes
There is a lack of true choice of educational
services in rural areas, and although Integration is offered as a
choice it is not a valid choice when it is such as we encountered
(submission 9, Victoria).
Another submission from a parent outlined the difficulties
of finding a school for her son in a rural area.
Our son is intellectually able, ambulant, but
has no speech as a consequence of cerebral palsy. He has other impairments
because of the c.p. as well. He attended local schools in middle and
upper primary but the local state high school insisted they could
not meet his needs. The special school only 50 miles away refused
to enrol him because he did not have an intellectual disability, a
requirement for enrolment. As a consequence, in order for him to attend
school at all, we had to seek enrolment in Melbourne special settings
for which he was eligible. This was very difficult as accommodation
is so difficult....More than that we didn't want to send our son away.
We ended up having to, and commute him twice a week to Melbourne.'
(Patricia Henry, Victoria, submission).
Another submission from a Catholic school in Victoria
stated
Parents in urban areas have the advantage of
being able to select an appropriate school that caters for their particular
needs (submission 31).
One parent outlined how lack of support reduced real
choice for families.
For families who live out in those isolated
places, if their child is not accepted at their local, one-teacher
school or the school in town because they have a disability, then
the child, more often than not, ends up in residential care or the
family shifts; the family sells up and moves to a bigger rural town
or city or the child ends up in residential care. My position and
the position of the Council is that that is not a choice. It's not
an option for schools to be able to lock kids out purely because they
have a disability and then the child, as a result of that, ends up
in a segregated educational setting and living setting, which often
then goes on for the rest of their life because of the limited capacity
of their own, they very rarely get out of that. The links between
their family and their community are really severed because it can't
be initiated from the child very often and because of what happens
at home with family and a whole heap of other pressures, very often
that is the event for the rest of their lives . So it starts out just
as an educational question and ends up a lifelong issue (Megan
Sweeney, parent, Sydney Hearing, 22 October 1999).
The Commonwealth Assistance for Isolated Children
(AIC) provides financial assistance for isolated students who either have
to send their child away to board or study by distance education. The
eligibility criteria are based on distance to the nearest appropriate
government school, to ensure that the assistance targets problems associated
with isolation. The nearest appropriate government school is normally
the nearest government school offering tuition at the grade or year in
which the student is qualified to enrol. However, where the student requires
a special school program or special facilities due to a health related
condition or special educational needs, the nearest appropriate government
school is the nearest government school providing the required program
or facilities.
This means that if a local government school is unable
to cater for the needs of the child, the family can apply for assistance
to send their child to the next nearest special facility or school that
can accommodate the child. However, if parents consider, based on their
own knowledge and perception, that the local special school is inappropriate
and wish to send the child away they may not receive AIC for their child.
Although the AIC is not designed to facilitate parental choice, many parents
of children with disabilities feel that they have little choice. This
issue was raised by several submissions to the inquiry.
If children are bypassing a local special school,
or there is a special school within a 50 kilometre radius of the home,
then the family of a child at Giant Steps will not be eligible for
the Assistance for Isolated Children funds. The Giant Steps program
is not considered to be a more appropriate school when there are special
schools closer by. This means there are no funding subsidies (Devonport
Public Meeting, Tasmania, 3 November 1999).
Boarding schools
The question of whether boarding schools are well
equipped to be able to teach students with special needs was also raised
in several submissions. The South Australian Independent Schools Board
(SAISB) submitted to the inquiry that
Teachers in independent schools have observed
that within their school's student cohort there are more students
with special learning needs among the boarders. They believe this
pattern may be due to a lack of early intervention during their primary
education. Bridging classes are available to these students. This
area requires greater investigation and research both at the individual
school level and at the school sector level (SAISB submission,
page 18).
Scotts PGC College in Warwick Queensland also raised
the issue of boarding school provision for students with disabilities
There is a lack of boarding school space for
disabled children (eg. Those afflicted with spina bifida) and a lack
of resources for these schools to cope with disabled children. Parents
often have no option but to seek placement for their disabled child
in an independent school to gain residential facilities and have to
seek means to pay the accompanying fees otherwise their child is unable
to study at the secondary level (Scotts PGC College, Warwick,
Queensland submission, page 5).
It suggests that
More effort should be made to bring equivalent
services to remote areas to avoid parents and their disabled students
in rural areas being doubly disadvantaged.
This was also one of the major issues discussed at
Painting the Rainbows an Invitational Workshop hosted by the Association
of Independent Schools of Queensland Inc. (AISQ) and Isolated Children's
Parents' Association (Queensland). In the report from this workshop, a
number of examples were given of parents' who had sent their child to
boarding school away from the local area because they felt they had no
choice. For many it was also the preferred option. Among the parents'
'wishes' identified in the workshop were
- that specific boarding establishments be funded
- Government financial assistance be provided to
enable boarding schools to cater for children with disabilities
- That Boarding schools be able to meet all children's
needs (AISQ and ICPA - Qld Inc, Painting the Rainbows - An Invitational
Workshop, pages 19-20)
However, it is acknowledged in the report that many
boarding schools lack funding for special needs.
Parents and students consistently demand choice and
flexibility in the provision of education for children with disabilities.
The important condition is for both teaching and funding to be flexible
enough to provide the best possible schooling for the individual student
with a disability.
Some rural areas provide a good range of possibilities
for students with disabilities. For example, St Mary's College Gunnedah
commented on the extensive educational opportunities in Gunnedah for children
with disabilities. St Mary's College has a reputation for enrolling students
with disabilities with intellectual and severe physical disabilities.
They had a blind student, another student in a wheelchair, and a student
with cerebral palsy who worked with a teachers aide for most of the day.
Other schools in area are also open to students with disabilities and
there is a government run special school for students with severe disabilities
(submission 79, St Mary's College, Gunnedah NSW).
Inclusion in a regular school
Many parents of children with disabilities want to
send their children to the local, regular school. Although most federal
and state education policies generally indicate support for parents choosing
to send their children to regular schools, several submissions to this
inquiry so far demonstrate that support is not always sufficient for this
to be a viable choice for many students. The reasons for this depend greatly
on the particular circumstances of the child, the attitude of the school,
a school principal or individual teacher, as well as wider structural
issues such as inadequate teacher support.
Inclusive education is a term used to express a commitment
to educate each child in the regular school and classroom. The child is
accepted into all aspects of regular school life without having to 'prove'
themselves or reach a certain standard in order to enter the school. Those
who support inclusion believe that the child should always begin in the
regular environment and be removed only when appropriate services cannot
be provided.
There has been a growing debate about the benefits
of inclusive education as opposed to separate special education for children
with disabilities. This debate is complex and heated because it relates
to educational and social values and an individual's sense of worth. Between
those who support inclusive education and those who support separate education
are groups of educators and parents, some of whom are confused by what
is legally required, or what is best for the child. There are also many
people who feel they know what is best for the child but are limited in
making a choice by practical considerations.
International human rights instruments do not spell
out whether the best interests of a child with a disability is served
by the establishment of special schools or by fully inclusive schooling
within regular schools. The Convention on the Rights of the Child
does not indicate whether the best interests of the child will be served
by the establishment of special schools for them or by fully integrated
schooling. Under the federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992
it is discriminatory to prevent students with a disability from enrolling
in regular schools unless it can be shown that admission would impose
unjustifiable hardship on the school. However, there is nothing to preclude
special schools from continuing as a viable choice for students just as
long as students who wish to obtain access to mainstream inclusive education
are able to have access to it on par with children without disabilities.
See Do children with disabilities have a right to full integration
in the school system? in the Briefing
paper on The Human Right to Education.
Issues about inclusion of children in regular schools
are not specific to rural and remote education. There is some evidence
to show that students in small rural settings have had more positive experiences
of inclusive education for a variety of reasons (Alan Hayes & Sherry
Livingstone, 1986). For example in rural schools students are more likely
to go through the school with the same set of peers and friends, especially
in area schools. Activities outside of the classroom, such as excursions
also typically involve the whole school. Multiple grades in classrooms
can also minimise the embarrassment of studying a different program from
classmates.
I am reminded by a contributor to this submission
of a discussion we had a couple of years ago. She said, remember when
you asked me to identify some best practices in inclusive schools.
The two schools which immediately came to mind were schools which
were isolated and where the school communities are strong, innovative
and creative. They held an ethos of doing their best for their own
(submission 89, Annette Herbert, Inclusive Education Network,
SA).
However, there are some aspects of education in rural
and remote areas which may impact negatively on the successful provision
of inclusive education. For example, in rural areas there may be a lack
of support services for students and teachers and delays in provision
of special educational and other equipment.
One parent of a child with a disability was positive
about inclusive education, although ambivalent about keeping her child
in the area.
I'm proud of the educational community in Bourke
for accepting my daughter into the school system. It has been good,
but in some ways I wonder if we have greatly disadvantaged her by
making her stay here (Bourke public meeting, NSW, 1 March 1999).
Other parents also felt strongly in favour of inclusive
education, but had encountered numerous barriers. One parent of a child
with Down's Syndrome in rural Victoria had to 'fight for the rights of
our son to attend school and receive some sort of education from the time
he went to kindergarten'. Although she had sometimes encountered problems
at the primary school level, these matters were resolved and the program
continued. However, when her child began the process of transition from
primary to secondary schooling she felt as if little commitment was being
made by the secondary school system to accommodate her child. Some of
the problems she expressed were a lack of communication between staff
members responsible for the child's education, a lack of funds for upgrading
necessary physical access to the school and a lack of adequate support
and commitment from some of the staff (Submission 9).
A number of submissions and comments made to the inquiry
stressed the importance of a positive attitude towards inclusion by principals
and teachers.
Again, often it comes down to the personal
philosophy of people making the decisions themselves, you know, the
principals or the district personnel. If they believe that segregated
education is the way children with disabilities should be educated,
they will promote that line and they will put as many barriers in
the way as they can to prevent children entering the regular system.
Whereas if you get a principal or district personnel who believe that
they should be educated in ordinary classrooms with support, then
they'll promote that line (Megan Sweeney, parent, Sydney hearing,
22 October 1999).
Not in all cases, but in many situations, geographical
isolation has led to isolation from newer principles and practice,
and in many remote areas - as is the same in areas in the metropolitan
area - there is a view that children with disabilities shouldn't be
in the regular class. They're special people who should be educated
in special places anywhere but here. Given the critical nature of
the attitude and values of staff, this can be a very big obstacle
(Belinda Epstein-Frisch, Institute of Family Advocacy and Leadership
Development, Sydney hearing, 22 October 1999).
Education Queensland has got Action Plans with
time lines, they've got Ascertainment Procedures, guidelines for Individual
Education Plans for Students with Disabilities, they've got support
staff, they got specific policy to cover just about everything, except,
professional ignorance, attitudes, bias and a pervasive culture of
resistance and resentment, that has nothing to do with a persons ethnic
or racial origin (submission 220, M A Floyd, Queensland).
Some comments to the inquiry pointed out that departments
may have fewer financial resources to adequately fund inclusion if they
provide a choice between both special schools and regular schools,
If there is inadequacy in schooling for children
with disabilities in rural areas I think that we should be trying
to address this problem by providing regular schools with the staff/resources
they need to be able to provide for children with disabilities. I
think in the long run this alternative will not only be cheaper than
building and staffing more special schools but will also involve children
with disabilities as part of their local community. It would save
on travel time, boarding costs and I think it would generally be a
lot easier on the children and families (submission 81, Tim Loreman,
Faculty of Education, Monash University).
Special education support services
Submissions on the difficulties faced by children
with disabilities in regular schools drew attention to the importance
of quality teaching and specialist support. It is the commitment and attitude
of the regular teacher that can make all the difference to the quality
of rural education for all students.
Neglecting teachers in an examination of rural
education is like discussing rural health care and forgetting to mention
the doctors, or discussing agriculture and forgetting the farmers.
Delivery systems are important; support systems can be vital; and
national policies often have a major impact. Yet in the final analysis,
somebody has to make the system work. In an overwhelmingly majority
of cases, that somebody in rural education is the local teacher. Thus,
the rural teacher can properly be viewed as the key to the quality
of rural education (J Sher cited in Ian Crease 1991, page 65).
Teacher support and training of teachers in special
education are some of the main issues facing regular schools with students
with disabilities. Depending on the disability and the needs of other
children without disabilities in the classroom, a regular teacher may
need varying degrees of specialist support. This support may be in the
form of a special education aide in the classroom or itinerant support
from a specialist. A regular teacher may also require training to meet
the particular needs of a student with a disability in the class.
In rural and remote areas special education teachers
and aides may be irregular or non-existent. Inadequate provision of special
education aides was raised a number of times in submissions and hearings.
Integration of students is a particular problem
in rural schools for the student being integrated, the classmates
and staff. The lack of support staff at the district level to help
with integration matters or special needs students (of all types)
makes coping with these students time consuming and in many cases
stressful. Students that require a great deal of care whether impaired
in some sense or behaviourally difficult increase workload on the
staff and will if adequate support is not forthcoming impact on the
other students. To have special needs students only placed with aids
for portions of their school time is disgraceful. To be told by district
staff that appropriate support cannot be sent because you are low
on the priority list (as we have) due to lack of support staff in
your district gives teaching staff a lack of confidence in the system
and disadvantages all students involved.
At present we are 5 weeks into Term 1 and we
still have not been given our allocation of support time for our two
most needy students. The wheels of bureaucracy must turn faster in
this area in future. We have had a situation where a parent has volunteered
her services (throughout 98/99 for one day a week to complete simple
aid work to release an aid to help supervise her son because allocated
time is not enough but very necessary (submission 11, Trangie
NSW).
One boy at the school suffered incontinence
very badly. The problem started in Pre-school and now he is in Year
6. We have never been able to get proper support for him. We have
tried unsuccessfully to get the department to send a person to help
him deal with this problem. They don't see him as a priority. As a
result of this he has missed a lot if time at school. It is sometimes
hard for him to be in the same class as others, especially on a hot
day (meeting with teachers, Boulia State School, Queensland, 4
October 1999).
One submission from the Northern Territory pointed
out that out of 170 students the school had 11 students with special needs.
The Special Education teacher position is, however, only .5 (half) of
a position. This teacher relies heavily on a committed team of people
working on a casual basis as Inclusion Support Assistants (ISAs), yet
the Department of Education provides only enough funds for Special Education
incidentals which means they rely on submissions and grants to pay the
staff a wage.
As we need a 'pool' of people working as ISAs
at Lajamanu CEC [Community Education Centre] these people are employed
casually and therefore receive no holiday pay (12 weeks/year), no
sick pay, no recognition of longevity of service and no career structure.
We believe that this is an unsatisfactory arrangement as it devalues
this staff's work and commitment and in turn suggests that students
with disabilities are not truly included when their support staff
do not have the same importance attached to their position and the
same rights in the workplace as other staff. While we are fortunate
at Lajamanu CEC to currently have a full staff in the Special Education
Department [the other .5 of the position is for ESL], many other schools
have commented on their difficulties in filling and keeping staff
in ISA positions due to conditions. This lack of support staff obviously
impacts on students with disabilities' outcomes and educational achievements
(submission 32, Lajamanu CEC NT).
In the remote community of Billiluna, Western Australia,
there are delays in accessing specialist support.
The services for children with disabilities
are very hit and miss and uncoordinated. There is no continuity of
service of specialist staff either. These staff do not know what has
gone on before. There are also long delays for service. We have a
child with a broken hearing aide and it has been broken for ages.
He has been without it for most of this year (Billiluna school
meeting, WA, 14 May 1999).
There is a teacher of the deaf in Broome. But
this person does not have money for travel nor does he have a vehicle.
Through lobbying his boss we were able to get money for travel and
so he should travel here this year. He has been good in obtaining
information about the hearing disabilities of the children here
(Billiluna school meeting, WA, 14 May 1999).
Schools are funded for special education assistance
through formula's which take into account the level of disability of the
individual student and the specified needs of the student. However, smaller
schools may be disadvantaged if they have only a few students with special
needs because they are unable to pool special education resources to form
special support facilities.
Another problem is the mere fact of isolation
. A problem is that a special needs child may have needs for additional
supports and would really benefit by a special unit in an ordinary
school. The problem is one may need five to 10 students with disabilities,
according to the Education Queensland policy, to support the education
unit, eg, with the special needs teacher or whatever; and indeed there's
a big problem in terms of getting one anyway to a remote area. So
if you've got a school with maybe 50 students, and two, three or four
special needs students, they probably won't get a unit. In fact, they
won't get a unit. That's a problem (Larry Laikind, Welfare Rights
Centre, Brisbane hearing, 8 October 1999).
It can be difficult to attract and retain special
education teachers to remote areas.
With regard particularly to service provision
for children on the margin, I wouldn't need to elaborate the difficulty
of supporting a child with special learning needs in remote communities;
it's very hard, it's very difficult. It's not just a question of money.
Even with the money, it's finding the people that have got the skill,
have got the interest and the stickability to go out and work with
a child who has a physical or a learning disability. Providing materials
is, in some ways, the easy part; it's finding the appropriate people
and supporting them in the job, and that makes it very difficult (Bill
Griffiths, Director of Catholic Education (NT), Darwin hearing 10
May 1999).
Inclusion of students with disabilities into mainstream
schools can bring up major industrial issues for teachers who feel that
they are not being supported adequately in this task. If there are not
enough hours for support allocated by the departments then it makes it
very difficult for a regular teacher to accept inclusion.
There's another issue that's probably worth
a mention, and it's a very difficult for one for us, and that is the
integration of children with various handicaps. We have difficulty
with people who would normally be our political allies over this.
We are concerned that students with disabilities are often integrated
into mainstream schools without adequate support, or if they receive
adequate support initially, that is withdrawn after a period of time,
leaving both the teacher and the child disadvantaged. It's most extreme
in a one-teacher school . The argument is about what is fair - the
department people that I complain to say, "We're very fair; we give
everyone their fair share." That is, they cut the pie up and everyone
gets their piece. My concept of fairness is that everyone gets what
they need, not that everyone gets the same share of what is inadequate
(Wayne Patterson, NSW Teachers' Federation, Sydney
hearing, 22 October 1999).
Meeting obligations to provide inclusion can prove
extremely difficult for non-government schools.
Children with disabilities: quite frankly,
I don't know how any school system, let alone our school system, is
going to fulfil the obligations laid upon them by the Commonwealth
Disability Discrimination Act, it would be extraordinarily difficult.
If the regulations are introduced in some sort of a building-code
mentality, just the sheer financial obligation on schools would be
very difficult . Again, how it will be developed over time and how
the standards will be actually worked up for educational institutions
is a concern, I think (Bill Griffiths, Director of Catholic Education
(NT), Darwin hearing, 10 May 1999).
Teacher training
Rural schools may find it difficult to provide special
training for regular teachers because of distance and lack of resources.
The integration of children with special needs
is a feature of Catholic Schools especially St Patrick's where we
have 7 Integration students enrolled out of a student population of
220. However, this does present difficulties with greater time and
planning demands placed on teachers including attendance at specialised
inservicing in Melbourne (2 hour drive) (submission 31, Camperdown
Vic).
I did a disability education course by distance
but it was very difficult because there are no reference books out
here.(Meeting with teacher's aides, Normanton School, Queensland,
5 October 1999)
The distance required to travel to attend training
seminars restrains the teachers in these areas. Schools are forced
to think twice about sending teachers to some of these seminars or
just hope that the subject matter covered won't affect them. Some
seminars are only a half day in duration in metropolitan based teachers,
but for our country counterparts it becomes a whole day away from
their students. This is because they have to travel up to three hours
to attend and then get back again (Kerrie Kerschat, Cooinda Family
Support Group, Melbourne hearing, 12 November 1999).
This problem also extends to training of integration
aides.
I would like to know why integration aides
are not qualified. On my own behalf my son's integration aide this
year has just walked off the farm and she's got the job. She's got
no training. Luckily this time she's a mum, so I guess there's a little
bit of 'tender love and care' (Annette Dendle, Melbourne hearing,
12 November 1999).
Access to sign language
Several submissions have raised the issue of the lack
of teaching services for profoundly deaf and sign-dependent children in
rural areas. Although local schools may try their best to better aid their
deaf students, they may not deliver a total curriculum in sign language.
One family of a profoundly deaf 3 1/2 year old boy,
who is dependent on sign as his principal means of communication, is concerned
that their child will be unable to be taught in Sign language when he
starts school. The nearest deaf facility is located 130kms away. The family
feels that it is inappropriate to board a child so young away from home,
and do not want to remove him from his Sign language-rich environment
at home. They submit,
At the moment the only 'service' available
to these children in a year and a half's time (ie when they formally
start school) will be a hour or so visit from the special education
generalist (not necessarily with any knowledge of Sign) each week.
This is an appalling response to the needs of two profoundly disabled
children. Yet this is what we are told is 'the price you pay for living
in the country' (or the price you pay for being born deaf in the country)(Richard
and Cristina V. Taffe, Wodonga, Victoria, submission).
Traralgon Deaf Facility, attached to a mainstream
school, was set up to service the entire Gippsland region in Victoria.
However, in their submission to the inquiry they point out that the facility
has only been able to service the children in the immediate area and a
few from local rural centres, whose parents are able to make the drive.
Many other deaf children are unable to access the school because of the
distance and lack of transport.
Both parents and the school have attempted
on numerous occasions to obtain transport. The response remains the
same, there are either no funds available or the facility does not
meet the necessary criteria. When questioned about the criteria the
response has been that as we are attached to a mainstream school we
are not a specialist facility. It is interesting to note that all
of the facilities in Melbourne, whether they are integrated or not,
have transport available for their students (Traralgon Deaf Facility
Victoria, submission).
Distance Education
Students with disabilities studying by distance education
may need extra support in their study. Lack of assistance from a specially
trained teacher was raised as an issue by parents in the survey conducted
for the inquiry by the Youth Research Centre, Melbourne University.
The Isolated Children's and Parents' Association in
WA conducted a survey in 1997 on learning difficulties among isolated
students.
I think there was almost a third of all the
children enrolled at schools of the air that had some sort of difficulty
with learning, whether it be a reading problem or a curriculum problem.
ADD is another big problem out there and those students from families
have no access to any facilities. (Helen Newland, ICPA(WA), Perth
hearing, 24 May 1999).
For distance education, staffing resources need to
be allocated appropriately.
Staffing for students with disabilities studying
by distance education needs to be different from that for face to
face teaching. Resources are needed for smaller classes and adapting
materials. Teacher aide support for toileting or scribing is inappropriate
in a remote community where there is no person to employ and the parent
is the unpaid supervisor of the student's work (submission 23,
Open Access College SA).
The difficulty is that we feel there are a
number of students who are enrolled with us who ought to be entitled
to some resource, and they're not counted in that salary because they
haven't been assessed - because getting that assessment is a very
slow process. We've certainly been having discussions with our local
people of how we can speed that process up, I guess. In some cases
the support, though, is actually needed at the local level, and for
some very remote students that is difficult to provide, clearly. What
happens is that those families then choose to move to the metropolitan
area often, and that happens in country areas as well as remote areas
(Ms Beagley, Open Access College SA, Adelaide hearing, 9 August
1999).
Health and professional support services
Besides training and support for regular teachers
with children with a disability in their class, some submissions pointed
out the need for a range of professionals to support children's needs,
for example speech pathologists and child psychiatrists. Many students
with disabilities need access to basic medical attention on a regular
basis and to specialist care. These services are lacking altogether or
extremely infrequent in many rural and remote areas. Accessing them can
also be extremely costly for parents and for school departments.
Families of children with disabilities do not
often stay in a rural or remote community because the support services
they need do not exist. There is a lack of access to Guidance Officers,
speech pathologists and respite care (submission 23, Open Access
College SA).
We should have received a visit from an education
psychologist, but she will not come now because there has been a recent
tragedy at Wubin and there have been a lot of suicides so she must
go to those places as a priority. This means that the children here
will not see the psychologist (Billiluna school meeting, WA, 14
May 1999).
The availability of specialist services is
very limited in Port Lincoln. The school does not have access to an
occupational therapist even though this service should be available
to the children once per week. Support services will not come to places
like Port Lincoln for one child because of the cost. This means that
the parents must travel to Adelaide for specialist treatment. The
costs can be prohibitive (Port Lincoln Special School meeting,
SA, 10 August 1999).
In isolated areas the Special Education teacher may
be the only person available to help to connect the students with other
disability services, which can put further stress on already stretched
resources
For example we currently have the case of our
student with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy who is living in very overcrowded
housing with no disability access. We know that this student's condition
will deteriorate and in the near future he will need a great deal
of support. The family has asked the Special Education teacher to
assist them with explaining the student's condition and needs to Community
Council staff. While the Special Education teacher has attended one
meeting, this needs to be an ongoing process if any results are to
be achieved. A .5 Special Education teacher is unable to really commit
to this, and without any other disability services in the community,
the family is left without any results and the student's well-being
is at risk. The fact that there is no full-time Special Education
teacher means that quality of service is not as high as it should
be, and in fact, full access to the education system is denied to
these students (submission 32, Lajamanu CEC NT).
The inquiry was told that when teaching resources
are thin on the ground, a remote school can lose out in preference to
the 'towns'.
Student Services in the Katherine Region has
been understaffed for most of 1998 and to date in 1999. Speech Pathologists,
Behavioural Management Specialists and Education Officers work out
of the Katherine region, and the Guidance Officers and Occupational
Therapists and Physiotherapists out of Darwin. These staff have been
advised, due to staff shortages, to 'prioritise town'. What this means
is that in the second half of 1998 at Lajamanu CEC we did not receive
any speech pathologists or behavioural management services, despite
having students with high needs in both these areas (submission
32, Lajamanu CEC NT).
One of the other things, too, is about the
really rurally remote families for kids who have very high levels
of support needs. They may have fragile medical conditions, they may
have a lot of physical support needs. Unless you have really good
coordinational models of the service provision between education,
community services and health, the child generally will not remain
at home or the family will move, because for those young people you
need all 3 or it won't work. That's a real problem in the rural areas;
medical stuff is just being slashed in New South Wales. A lot of towns
can't even get a GP (Megan Sweeney, parent, Sydney hearing, 22
October 1999).
The Director of Dalwood Assessment Centre also raised
lack of specialist services in rural areas as a serious issue for students
with disabilities. Dalwood Assessment Centre is an assessment, therapy
and remediation service for NSW rural children between 5-12 years old
who are experiencing severe learning, speech and language and behavioural
and emotional disorders:
Unless a child lives close to a major regional
centre, is of very young school age in New South Wales rural districts,
the likelihood of them receiving ongoing speech and language therapy
is virtually non-existent. That's certainly different from the situation
that exists within metropolitan areas of New South Wales. Clearly,
the ramifications that that has for the child's learning and ongoing
adjustment and development are significant (Deborah Knight, Director
of Dalwood Assessment Centre, Sydney hearing, 22 October 1999).
Smaller schools have difficulty in supplying
school counsellors because until the student enrolment gets to a certain
level they aren't eligible to have counselling on site. I think in
South Australia it's 200 students enrolled to get a primary counsellor
(SA Association of State School Organisations, Adelaide hearing,
9 August 1999).
The back-up of school psychologists, the breaking
down of that profession - indeed, the intent of this particular Department
at the present time to spread these people across numerous schools,
particularly in remote schools, remote locations, across maybe five
or six different schools, means that a child cannot access this type
of person when they need them, so usually what you end up having is
a referral list that a teacher puts together and then you're called
out of the class and the para-professional, the psych, can see you.
This is pathetic in the extreme with regard to a child accessing quality
professionals when they're needed (David Kelly, State School Teachers'
Union, Perth hearing, 24 May 1999).
Sometimes I see a child in my class and I know
he or she has a serious problem - a learning difficulty. But I don't
have access to the medical information to support the child. I don't
know what I should do to help the child. It's very frustrating.
Access to medical professionals such as ear,
nose and throat specialists is very erratic. It depends very much
when they are available to visit the community. Their visits tend
to be very random. You get a fax a week beforehand telling you they're
coming. Then there is very little follow-up afterwards. Sometimes
you don't hear from them until 6 or 12 months later. In the meantime
you're tearing your hair out wondering what you should do to help
the child.
Sometimes when medical professionals visit
the community they are heavily booked and it is very hard to get an
appointment.
We are usually not able to arrange a medical
person to visit the community at a time that suits our needs. Mostly
we are at the mercy of their timetable (Meeting with teacher's
aides, Normanton School, Queensland, 5 October 1999).
There are some innovative programs to address this
problem in rural areas.
There are some positive programs in Mt Isa
that provide support for students with disabilities. 'Bush Children'
is a community based health program that provides psychologists and
other professional support for students with intellectual disabilities.
However, its funding is very limited and it also has restrictive age
and eligibility requirements. In addition, it is subject to parental
consent and parents are sometimes reluctant to admit that their child
has an intellectual problem (Mt Isa public meeting, 7 October
1999).
Identification and diagnosis of a disability
Identification and diagnosis of a disability is crucial
to providing an appropriate education for a child. If a child can be accurately
diagnosed as early as possible, the primary school and the high school
can begin to plan for the needs well ahead of time. This is important
if physical changes need to be made to the school, for example the building
of ramps for wheelchair access. In some cases it is not easy for health
professionals to accurately diagnose a young child's disability and it
may be that the disability becomes apparent over a period of time. This
can be difficult in a remote or rural school where it is difficult for
teachers to access training or there is a lack of specialists, including
health practitioners, in the area.
Basic screening happens but there is no real
follow-up with specialists and there is no screening for intellectual
disability. Screening is focused on pre-primary and Year 1 primary.
They will see the other children if they have time. The follow up
for children with Otitis Media is poor. It doesn't show up every time.
With the changeover of nursing staff there is no continuity (Billiluna
school meeting, WA, 14 May 1999).
One parent in Kununurra WA told the inquiry that it
had been difficult to get a diagnosis for her child with dyslexia. Several
parents have had to travel to Darwin or Perth to have their children assessed.
One parent said that dyslexia is not classified as a disability by the
school but as a 'learning difficulty'. Although she knew something was
wrong when he was in Grade 2, it was not until Grade 5 that she was able
to get a diagnosis from a specialist in Perth. She encountered a dismissive
attitude from school staff.
The first comment they give you every time
is that it's the mother that's got the problem not the child or school.
But if you've seen your other children through school, you get to
know when something is not quite right (Kununurra public meeting,
WA, 17 May 1999).
Although dyslexia specialists offered to hold a workshop
in Kununurra, the parent said this has not eventuated.
A student was repeatedly suspended from school
for disruptive behaviour by teachers who did not realise he had an
intellectual disability and attention deficit disorder. He is now
on medication and doing well in his studies, but it took the school
a whole year to understand the true nature of his condition. There
needs to be better assessment of students. Some students are placed
in classes above their true level of ability (Mt Isa public meeting,
Qld, 7 October 1999).
Eligibility for intervention services such
as speech therapists and guidance officers does not start until Year
2. This means that Year 1 children often miss out, yet their need
is just as great (Meeting with teacher's aides, Normanton School,
Queensland, 5 October 1999).
So the GP doesn't recognise attention deficit
disorder, and the school - there is only one school available - and
that's another problem, eg a lack of choice as far as schools - the
principal and teacher both say, 'Well there's no problem here, there's
no attention deficit disorder, no medical disorder. The problem is
that the child is bad and you are bad because you cannot control your
bad child'. And that's about all (Larry Laikind, Welfare Rights
Centre, Brisbane hearing, 8 October 1999).
One of the processes for funding for students
with disability in South Australia is that there needs to be an assessment
by a guidance officer before you can indicate whether the student
is eligible for the funding or not, and that's a real issue for us
with families in very very distant locations and remote locations.
So often a student could go several months before they can be assessed
and access the funding. Often then it's very difficult to use the
funding appropriately. An example is that we recently had a primary
student arrive from Victoria to William Creek Station. That student
had cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability and, because they
were new into our system, they had to be reassessed. The Victorian
information wasn't sufficient. That student then was entitled to some
SSO hours, but in terms of William Creek and providing an appropriate
person, there was nobody in the community that was appropriate. That
has happened several times, that kind of scenario (Ms Beagley,
Adelaide hearing, 9 August 1999).
However, although an essential first step, assessment
is virtually useless without the follow up educational programs and support.
Another critical problem relates to the specialist
resources. The Department of Education and Training has some specialist
resources, but they only are of experts, particularly - for example,
there's something called the resource support unit, which is there
to assist teachers in dealing with students with challenging behaviour.
They provide, I understand, very effective support, training, monitoring,
help set up programs, but they're not available outside the metropolitan
area, and are critically needed. Or, very occasionally, they might
go outside the metropolitan area and do an assessment, but they're
not available for ongoing support and consultation. So some people
have actually said that coming for an assessment is worse than not
coming at all, because you get a sniff of what might have been possible,
but without any opportunity to actually implement it in any way (Belinda
Epstein-Frisch, Family Advocacy, Sydney hearing, 22 October 1999).
Hearing impairment in remote Aboriginal communities
Many students from Aboriginal communities suffer high
rates of conductive hearing loss due to early, recurrent otitis media
or middle ear infection. There is evidence that recurring otitis media
during the early years of life puts children at increased risk for language
development delays and possible later difficulty acquiring literacy skills
(Yonowitz et al, 1995; Higgins 1997).
In Lajamanu NT, the inquiry was told that 80% of the
children have hearing problems. Similarly the Aboriginal people at meetings
in Nguiu, Billiluna, Kununurra and in Northern NSW raised hearing impairment
due to otitis media as a problem affecting the education of Aboriginal
children.
In Nguiu on Bathurst Island the inquiry was told that
every classroom in the school has an amplification system and the teacher
speaks to the students through a microphone. An ear program is conducted
every morning which involves nose blowing and checking the children's
ears.
I think with the loss of hearing our kids have
difficulty in learning and listening to the sounds in their first
language using syllables and also the English vowels. They have problems
listening and when they do the Multi Assessment Program I think some
of our kids have done well with the test, but some of our kids because
of their hearing have not done well in the test (Nguiu community
meeting, NT, 11 May 1999)
In Billiluna WA, the school also has a program of
nose blowing and coughing to improve hearing, but there are still a number
of students who are in need of medical attention and must wait before
a specialist can see them.
Quite a number of children have hearing disabilities.
We have 6 children who had a referral to the ear specialists out of
40 children. Two of those 6 children have priority one ear operations.
We have one child who has no hearing and no speech. He floats between
two communities. One child has recently had an ear operation. It might
be next year before the ear specialist comes so it might be a long
time before these children have an ear operation (Billiluna school
meeting, WA, 14 May 1999).
A number of children at the homeland communities in
Northern Territory have hearing problems. In GanGan homeland community
mats have been put on the floors of the classrooms to reduce ambient noise.
However the inquiry was informed that children with more severe disabilities
are not accessing education at GanGan. A child with a disability may be
kept at home and therefore not come to the attention of the school (GanGan
homelands community visit, NT, 12 May 1999).
A lot of these classrooms have got evaporative
air-coolers which put out a significant amount of background noise.
A lot of them have got very hard surfaces, where you get echoing and
reverberations around the room. When we did sound studies of the classrooms
at Yuendumu we found that in some of the classrooms they were putting
up an equivalent sound level to a truck prime mover being parked 10
metres outside the door, and that's what the teacher is trying to
project their voice above. So there are really very basic things,
very commonsense things that simply haven't been done in the older
facilities that have been put out. I think it is starting to be addressed
in the newer classrooms that are being put up.
That's just one area and I think in a significant
number of cases there's permanent hearing damage to those kids. Mostly
it cycles so that at any one time the 40% that have got a hearing
impairment will be a different list of names, year to year and even
parts of years. So really you have to have strategies that prepare
the teaching space to maximise the teacher's chances of dealing with
hearing-impaired kids . Really, health and education are very closely
interwoven; if you've got bad health, it will have a major effect
on the ability to achieve educational outcomes (Peter Toyne, Shadow
Minister for Education and Training, NT Legislative Assembly, Darwin
hearing, 10 May 1999).
A lot of our kids need amplification in the
classrooms and we just haven't got the money. That's just one instance
(Beverley Angeles, Indigenous Education Council, Darwin hearing,
10 May 1999).
My daughter has had otitis media since pre-primary.
This has had a vast impact on her learning. I have had to struggle
with this problem. There is nothing in the classroom to deal with
this problem. There are long waiting lists for the specialists to
see my daughter and meanwhile her education is suffering. There are
many children in remote regions with the same problems and these problems
are not being addressed (Fitzroy Crossing community meeting, WA,
19 May 1999).
The problem with otitis media is that the hearing
levels are always fluctuating. The hearing might be satisfactory one
month and poor the next. It is so difficult to cater for the needs
of children with these problems and it is affecting their learning.
They do have operations to replace the eardrums, but when they are
done before the age of 10 they break down and the kids are back on
the waiting list for another operation. This makes the kids and the
parents very upset. The children have to go 400 kilometres away and
the bus comes back to Fitzroy Crossing at 1.30 in the morning. Isolated
Patients Transport Assistance Scheme does provide for a parent to
accompany the child to the place of the operation, but this is not
always possible when the mother has a new baby (Fitzroy Crossing
community meeting, WA, 19 May 1999).
Otitis media has more serious implications
for children who have a language background of Kriol and Walmajarri
as their first languages. Given that they are required to become proficient
in English, some of these children hardly hear any English at all.
At the school where I teach, we have only just got road access to
Fitzroy Crossing, and we have just got a TV as of 3 weeks ago. Before
that, I was the only English speaker in the community. Many of the
children have otitis media and their English language education is
seriously compromised because of the combination of language factors
and the hearing difficulties. Something like 90% of the kids at my
school have otitis media.
We have Listen Plus at our school, but regardless
of whether the sound is amplified, the sound is still a muffle. If
you have eardrum damage, it is like having your fingers in your ears.
"The incidence of otitis media today in
Fitzroy is less due to cleaner water and better nutrition and housing
and greater access to community health. It is certainly better than
it was 10 years ago." (Fitzroy Crossing community meeting,
WA, 19 May 1999).
We have, in some communities, 100% of children
arriving at school having had otitis media, and would, by then, have
lifelong hearing damage, and some will have never heard some of the
sounds in the English language, which places them at a disadvantage
in terms of being able to read and to spell.
It accounts for, in many cases, absenteeism,
behaviour problems, and there's a cluster. I think we need to give
much more attention to that; and I can provide evidence of that. We
conducted research ourselves and programs on that that clearly showed
a staggering improvement by training teachers. But our focus was on
teacher aides. We believe - and this comes back to the community theme
- that durable programs are those that result in community uptake,
and that of course implies some form of leadership. So, we, in our
programs, having initially targeted teachers, then focused on teacher
aides, and we found our programs to be durable; more than durable,
they transferred across communities
(David McSwan, Director, Rural Education Research
and Development Centre, School of Education, James Cook University,
Brisbane hearing, 8 October 1999).
Physical access to school facilities
The inquiry has been informed in a several submissions
about difficulties of access to school grounds, school facilities and
classrooms.
Depending on the nature of the student's disability,
school modifications may take time and a substantial amount of resources.
For example, students in wheelchairs may need ramps and lifts installed
to access the school building and classrooms. Students with sight impairment
may need special braille facilities attached to a computer.
In Moree NSW the inquiry was told that Courallie High
School has good facilities for people with disabilities. One of the classrooms
has a ramp (Student meetings, Moree NSW, 5 March 1999). However, another
local school has three stories and access only by stairs.
In Lajamanu NT essential school modifications, such
as a toilet block with disability access and ramps and paths, are held
up because the applications are 'processed like all other applications
for school building improvements'.
We have had applications in with the Education
Department for a year and a half now, to have our school modified
to meet disability standards . but the process is so slow that nothing
happens. Just recently we were told that we would get the first part
of the grant to get the disability toilet but it is still going to
be months before that happens. And there seems to be no special provisions
to get this disability access. You just have to apply like everyone
else does for improvements to the school, and it is just a matter
of luck I suppose, or if the department considers your thing all right
they approve it. But there is no actual process which we can go through
to get disability access and to get it quickly (Lajamanu community
meeting, NT, 13 May 1999).
Our three students with mobility difficulties
are forced to walk on uneven, rocky ground and to climb up steps that
put them at risk of falling. Our two children in wheelchairs are bumped
along this uneven ground. We are particularly concerned for our student
with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. His deteriorating condition means
that he is losing muscle strength, for example in his neck, and we
have noted that on rocky ground his head bounces around. We believe
that the extreme slowness of the procedure to modify our school creates
unnecessary health risks for our students and denies them full access
to Lajamanu CEC (submission 32, Lajamanu CEC NT).
Another barrier between student and school
is whether or not the school itself is accessible. One student within
a region where there was supposedly a range of options for secondary
education had to forgo his first choice because all of the high school
classrooms were upstairs and there was no lift. His family thought
long and hard about whether or not they would, what they termed, make
a fuss, but decided to compromise lest they only achieve a high profile
reputation as troublemakers within a region where everybody knows
everybody (Annette Herbert, Inclusive Education, Adelaide hearing).
We have staircases at our school so we don't
have kids with disabilities because they can't get up and down the
stairs. We only have a few students with very mild disabilities. There
is a special school nearby and that is where the disabled students
go (Devonport student meeting, Tasmania, 3 November 1999).
Besides school buildings, some children need disability
aides, for example special tyres for wheelchairs. In rural and remote
areas there may be considerable delays in procuring these types of aides,
although they are essential to the student's participation in educational
activities.
Inaccessible schools also prevent access for teachers
with a disability. This functions as a disincentive for teachers with
disabilities to apply for rural and remote positions. It may deprive the
schools of valuable skills such as signing, and also deprives students
with disabilities of role models.
What I want to raise is another aspect of that;
and that is that for professionals with disabilities to be able to
work in rural areas is almost not possible because of problems of
access, for instance, wheelchair access in areas that might otherwise
be a professional setting for them. So, few of the schools, for instance,
are appropriately equipped. Certainly, the department does equip them
if a child comes, but, I mean, it's preventing teachers taking appointments,
it's preventing a whole range of other people who might otherwise
choose to work in rural areas. The broad point is that provisions
for disabled and special needs people are not as good and as accessible
in rural as in urban areas (David McSwan, Director, Rural Education
Research and Development Centre, School of Education, James Cook University,
Brisbane hearing, 8 October 1999).
I did a recent complaint for a principal in
education. He was a tetraplegic after a car accident - or partially
tetraplegic - and he was out west for a number of years. One of his
complaints were dealing with promotion, and the problem was 99% of
schools in Queensland could not accommodate his wheelchair. That's
a big problem, Queensland high-set schools; it's very much the problem
now. I know Education Queensland is rectifying this, but very slowly.
Indeed, many of the new schools are accessible but not many of the
existing ones; and it's really very difficult to put a ramp in a high
set Queenslander (Larry Laikind, Welfare Rights Centre, Brisbane
hearing, 8 October 1999).
Many schools are demonstrating that flexibility can
go a long way to making their premises accessible.
Last year we had a girl come up in a chair.
We needed some work done on the school; we needed some toilets altered,
some pathways altered and so on and that was all done without a problem.
The only difficulty we did have was that she was scheduled to go in
an upstairs classroom, which she couldn't go in, so she and the class
had to go into what was traditionally a junior primary area because
that was a ground floor area. The kids accepted that pretty well.
We did have to construct a wall in the open area because we had the
Year 1s and the Year 6s side by side. So the access is good. We've
access to the library, pathways round the school, disabled toilet.
So the student how has her own personal toilet with a lock that she
has a key to, with all of her appropriate things in there (Alan
McLaren, Kununurra District High School Principal, Kununurra hearing,
WA, 17 May 1999).
Early intervention and transition to school
Early childhood education has been increasingly recognised
as playing a major role in the social and educational development of children.
This issue was raised in several submissions to the inquiry.
What the latest research is showing is that the
environment that surrounds children from birth to five years has more
to do with their long-term health and also the academic success than
anything else that happens to them in later years. For this reason it's
imperative that children receive the best care and education in these
early years. So early education programs need to be family-focused,
culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate and by investing
resources in families and appropriate early-education programs in the
early formative years the government can actually save millions of dollars
on later intervention programs that in many cases have limited success
(Sister Mary Vajda, Notre Dame University, Broome hearing, WA).
Access to early intervention services, whether educational,
medical or therapeutic, is especially critical in the case of children
with disabilities. For some children serious educational or developmental
disabilities may become apparent as they grow. These may interfere with
their readiness to participate fully in the typical learning and social
activities of the 5-6 year olds at the time of school enrolment. Hence
early intervention can help children to develop their skills to the maximum
level, which will make transition to school easier for parents, children
and schools (Linfoot 1997, p.1-2, submission 38). Some other children
manage to reach school age without identification of their needs, and
this may create problems for parents when confronted with the sudden knowledge
that their child has special needs. Early intervention can ensure continuity
in the transition to school, and allow schools and parents to plan for
the child's special needs.
Although international law does not impose on any
government a duty to provide pre-school education, the Convention on
the Rights of the Child does require States to assist parents in their
child-rearing responsibilities, including by developing 'institutions,
facilities and services for the care of children' (article 18.2). In addition,
the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons
with Disabilities, unlike the Convention, specifies that
- Special attention should be given in the following
areas:
- Very young children with disabilities
- Pre-school children with disabilities
- Adults with disabilities, particularly women
The report Access to Early Intervention for Families
of Children with Disabilities in Rural Areas of New South Wales in
1997 collected data on children with a disability aged 0-6 years in rural
New South Wales (Linfoot 1997, Submission 38) According to a survey of
local area providers of generic early childhood services in small rural
areas, up to 23% of those children needing early intervention services
were not receiving them (Linfoot, p.ix). A number of reasons were identified
by service providers as to why these services were not being accessed
by families in need. These included service unavailability or the limited
adequacy of services, and family resistance to use the service. A survey
of families with children with disabilities found that a number of families
live extremely long distances away from important services and this was
a major reason why they failed to utilise these services. Families also
felt that the most consistently identified need was for information about
available services.
One family had made a decision to move off a family
farm to live in a nearby regional centre where a greater range of therapy
and special educational services would be available to better meet the
needs of their 3-year-old son.
The report also highlights a number of innovative
programs for increasing access to early intervention services in rural
and remote areas, and makes several recommendations to improve this access
in rural NSW. These recommendations include that
- periodic advertising and other public education
approaches be targeted to families in rural areas, if not other parts
of the nation, to assist public awareness of the needs of young children,
especially when local medical services are not easily available, as
is often the case in rural areas.
- a comprehensive review be made of the adequacy
of provision of speech therapy and developmental programming support
for children with disabilities and/or developmental delay
- a database be made available to those responsible
for organising Early Intervention services in NSW with a view to adapting
or using this data collection and handling process for their own strategic
planning
- regional agencies be supported to innovate with
teleconference networking in their regions, with a view to the dissemination
of relevant Early Intervention advice to staff and families of local
services.
- support be made available to investigate the feasibility
of offering satellite TV broadcasts of programs on Early Intervention
issues to rural areas.
- a pilot study be established of the effectiveness
of computer-based Early Intervention networking between a willing host
specialist centre which could be city or regional centre-based and a
group of small rural area children's service organisations.
The Director of Dalwood Assessment Centre in Sydney
stressed the difficulties of providing early intervention in rural areas.
The final point being also that the frustration
for the parents and for our own staff, I guess, is that the more remote
that one becomes in New South Wales, the less immediate access or
regularity of visits by special ed and support staff to the children's
schools; so the issue of skilled and regular intervention for children
- regular to meet the needs of the child - is far less available than
is available in larger centres and in urban centres in spite of -
I should add - my experience in working in both metropolitan, regional
and rural districts is that that's in spite of the extreme commitment
that exists within staffing in New South Wales rural schools . The
answer is more staffing. I'm not so sure that that's a viable answer.
The answer is probably supplementation to services such as our own
- I'll put in my own pitch here - where we do have the expertise and
the facilities to in fact provide the programming for children. The
answer is for more access to in-servicing for those that are working
out in the more remote areas and certainly for more professional and
peer support and for certainly supplementation and support staff (Deborah
Knight, Director of Dalwood Assessment Centre, Sydney hearing, 22
October 1999).
Other issues
Funding of non-government schools
The question about why are children being
refused access to schools comes in. It happens in state schools as
well as the private sector, but the private sector hasn't got the
infrastructure of funding to support. The funding to support a child
with a disability in the private sector comes from the Commonwealth
unless it's derived from the actual school community out of goodwill
or whatever. Any actual funding comes from the Commonwealth. It's
very limited, I think the maximum amount you can get from the Commonwealth
is about $1,000 a year or $1,200 a year to support a child and then
that's it (Megan Sweeney, parent, Sydney hearing, 22 October 1999).
A profoundly deaf Aboriginal student was enrolled
at a Catholic primary school at the pre-primary stage according to his
mother's wish to have him educated at a Catholic school. He received an
assistant teacher one day a week trained in sign language and a hearing
aid. However, at the commencement of 1999 it was felt that in order for
him to progress further and reach his potential he needed to be in an
environment where he had access to a full time interpreter and sign language
teacher. The school applied for the necessary funding but was denied,
and so he was enrolled at the Kununurra District High School (KDHS), the
large government high school in Kununurra, where he has access to a full-time
interpreter sign language teacher. In this situation his progress showed
marked improvement and he happily involved himself in activities set for
him. The situation was further enhanced by the fact that there were other
children of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal descent that he could sign
to and mix with. St Joseph's believe that he needs specialised care due
to his hearing disability and acknowledges and appreciates the progress
that KDHS has made in this, but wished that he could have been able to
stay at the school of his choice.
It is believed that the central issue that
needs to be considered is one of equity. The government schools seem
to have a better funding arrangement which puts them in a position
of being able to offer a service which is beyond that of St Joseph's.
Such a situation disadvantages those children who wish to have a Catholic
Education along with the specialised care required for them to reach
their full potential. It also needs to be stated that it was initially
very difficult for him to make the transition to the High School and
required much support from his own family, St Joseph's and Kununurra
District High School staff. So basically we're saying that we want
to be able to offer the same services that Kununurra District High
School does. We've very happy with what is going at present but it
seems as though his attendance is dropping off due to different reasons.
If it happens that he is not going to the High School and wishes to
return to St Joseph's we want to be in a position to be able to offer
him what the High School does, and at the moment we can't get the
funding to do that (John Polglase, St Joseph's Catholic School,
Kununurra hearing, WA, 17 May 1999).
Students who 'fall through the gaps'
Kids with moderate to severe disabilities
get the sort of support they need, like in aide time or resources
to be maintained in an ordinary classroom. But at risk, still, are
the children that fall into the mild category, the kids who might
have a mild intellectual disability, have behavioural problems, who
generally come from low socioeconomic backgrounds - also have social
implications of that with the family. That funding is still capped,
it's spread thin. There's not a lot of infrastructure and those still
are very much at risk in the school system. They usually become enrolled
but they are expelled or suspended fairly speedily if they don't toe
the line. So those kids are still really at risk (Megan Sweeney,
parent, Sydney hearing, 22 October 1999).
Fitzroy Crossing Secondary School has access
to a psychological service that provides 3 visits to the school per
term for 2 to 3 days at a time. One of the issues for the school is
the level to which the child has a disability. The Department has
criteria for measuring disability and will only provide support for
children who fit these criteria. Part of the problem for school occurs
when then children are assessed to have learning difficulties, but
they do not fit the Education Department categories. The classroom
teacher must provide the support for these children. Classroom teachers
develop Individual Education Programs for children not eligible for
classroom support (Fitzroy Crossing community meeting, WA, 19
May 1999).
Services for students with learning difficulties
and psychological problems are available through the education system
for only an extremely limited number of students while many others
would benefit greatly from some of this type of support. These services
can be accessed privately if parents are able to afford the costs,
distances to be travelled involved and are able to recognise that
their children require particular types of support (Kimba Area
School Council SA, submission 124).
Dyslexia is defined as a 'disorder or malfunction
that results in a person learning differently from a person without
the disorder or malfunction' (Discrimination Act 1992). Due to their
higher than average intelligence, these children can slip through
the system with ease . Many teachers in many schools are neither qualified
nor professionally aware of these children's needs or even if they
are, do not have the time to dedicate to these children. However,
when teachers are aware that students have a learning difficulty,
DETE psychologists report that the student is 'not bad enough' to
allow the school to qualify for extra funding (Booleroo Centre
High School SA, submission 150).
In many ways children with autism have the
most complex needs, are least understood and require the most intensive
resources. Respite care becomes a huge issue too because respite workers
don't know what to do and family based care and residential care organisations
make decisions that they don't want to care for kids with autism.
They find them too difficult. It is actually a secondary level of
discriminatory behaviour. In a recreation sense there are very few
outlets for children with needs like my son. I keep being told that
he is not compatible with the group and I'm talking about groups of
children with special needs. There is just nowhere for him to go (Devonport
public meeting, Tasmania, 3 November 1999).
Family support
Another problem is that, whereas in Brisbane
there may be several groups that a person could get for support, depending
on the particular impairment, there are both community centres, service
providers, small formally-organised groups and non-formally-organised
groups, there may be no group in a remote area and there may be, say,
one group, depending on the disability, in, maybe, a regional rural
area. That seems to be a problem (Larry Laikind, Welfare Rights
Centre, Brisbane hearing, 8 October 1999).
Cooinda Family Support Group in Albury-Wodonga is a good
example of a family support group that provides families in a rural area
with a range of support including an opportunity for families to share their
experiences in the education system.
References
Association of Independent Schools of Queensland Inc
and Isolated Children's Parents' Association, Painting the Rainbows
- An Invitational Workshop, Yeppoon, Queensland, 26-27 March 1999.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Disability, Ageing
and Carer's Survey, Canberra, ABS, 1993.
Rod Chadbourne, Including Children with Intellectual
Disabilities in Regular Schools - A Review of the Western Australian Project,
Edith Cowan University, March 1997.
Ronald F. Chalmers, Selective Adaptation: How Teachers
Manage Their Work in 'Inclusive' Classrooms, PhD thesis, University
of WA, Graduate School of Education, 1998.
Ian Crease, Supporting Disabled Students in Rural
Queensland: An Exploratory Study, PhD thesis, James Cook University,
1991.
Christine Flynn, Disability Discrimination in Schools
- Students and parents speak out, National Children's and Youth Law
Centre, April 1997.
Elizabeth Hastings, The right to belong - disability
discrimination law in education, a speech
by Elizabeth Hastings, Disability Discrimination Commissioner in Sydney,
July 1997.
Alan Hayes & Sherry Livingstone, 'Mainstreaming
in Rural Communities: An Analysis of Case Studies in Queensland Schools',
The Exceptional Child, Vol.33, No.1, March 1986.
Andrew H Higgins, Addressing the Health and Educational
Consequences of Otitis Media Among Young Rural School-Aged Children,
Australian Rural Education Research Association, 1997.
Douglas Hodgson, The Human Right to Education,
Dartmouth, Ashgate, 1998.
Robert Jackson, James McAfee and Judith Cockram, Ensuring
Compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act in Education: A Discussion
Paper, Centre for Disability Research and Development, Edith Cowan
University, December 1998.
Ken Linfoot, Access to early Intervention for Families
of Children with Disabilities in Rural Areas of New South Wales - A Research
Report on Access to Services, Family Needs and Alternate Methods of Service
Delivery for Families Living in Remote or Isolated Areas of New South
Wales, University of Western Sydney, February 1997
Leslie Yonowitz, Al Yonowitz, Terry Nienhuys and Judith
Boswell, 'MLD Evidence of Auditory Processing Factors as Possible Barrier
to Literacy for Australian Aboriginal Children', Australian Journal
of the Deaf, Vol.1, No.1, 1995.
Last
updated 2 December 2001.