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Rural and Remote Education Inquiry Briefing Paper

Rural and Remote Education Inquiry Briefing

Paper

School Education for Students with

Special Needs

  1. Overview
  2. A child's right to education
  3. Australia's Disability Discrimination

    Act

  4. Rural and remote schools -

    Issues raised in the inquiry

  5. Further reading

1. Overview

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

New South

Wales Department of Education and Training

Victoria Department

of Education

South Australia

Department of Education, Training and Employment

Education

Queensland

Education

Department of Western Australia

Division of

Education in Tasmania

ACT Department

of Education and Community Services

Northern

Territory Department of Education

2. A child's

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

on the Rights of the Child,

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.

  1. 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

Standard

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.

3.

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

    v Hills Grammar School

    (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).

4. Issues

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

  1. Special attention should be given in the following

    areas:

    1. Very young children with disabilities
    2. Pre-school children with disabilities
    3. 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.

5.

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.