Disabled students' families accuse Northern Territory school of neglecting kids

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The parents of a group of children with disabilities are accusing the NT government of failing to make sure one of its special schools has enough trained staff to keep them safe.

Transcript

00:00School pick-up every day brings relief for Kayleigh Sachs. She feels her daughter April

00:09isn't safe attending Palmerston's Forest Parade Special School.

00:14I fear that if her trachea wasn't changed in time and they didn't attend to her in a

00:20timely manner, she could lose her life.

00:22April has complex medical needs, including a tracheostomy to breathe, that can need to

00:27be suctioned or changed. Her mother says April used her NDIS disability funding to provide

00:35training on this to the school, but only two staff were trained.

00:39April came home and told me that there was no one trained in her class multiple times

00:45this year already.

00:46April's non-verbal classmate Eli Cook needs regular mouth suctioning to prevent choking.

00:52His mother also thinks the school lacks enough specially trained staff.

00:58So if they both go down at the same time, they're in a lot of trouble because that's

01:02blocking airways.

01:03Both mothers have provided the school with hospital letters saying their kids need one-to-one

01:09care to be safe.

01:11I got told all kids get the same funding and he doesn't require a one-on-one.

01:16The families have few other school choices available.

01:21Shelby Locke moved her non-verbal autistic son out to a mainstream school.

01:28After she says Forest Parade didn't tell her he was mislaid during a class photo session

01:34in 2023, until she saw he wasn't in the photos.

01:38They're getting paid to watch him 24-7 and they couldn't tell me where he was for at

01:42least 40 minutes.

01:43The ABC asked the school, education department and the education minister Jo Hersey for interviews.

01:50Following the ABC's queries, the minister wrote to Alison Cook, promising to work urgently

01:57to recruit a second nurse to the school, so that her son can have one-to-one supervision.

02:03The education department said it's not able to comment on individual cases, but it's committed

02:10to providing support for students with a disability.

02:13And Forest Parade School is dedicated to providing high-quality care.

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