Inadequate funding, outdated class sizes among challenges for children with disability in ACT public schools

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Two Canberra families say their children with disability were failed by the ACT public school system, citing a lack of support and exclusionary practices. Education leaders acknowledge the sector lacks sufficient resources, with unions and parents calling for urgent funding reform and smaller class sizes to meet students's needs.

Transcript

00:00Music

00:06Switching to homeschooling was the best thing to happen to Liam Waltoff.

00:11His meltdowns are far and few between now.

00:14He's become more confident in himself.

00:18Liam, who lives with ADHD and autism,

00:21had been a student at a public school in Canberra's North.

00:25His parents say from kindergarten the school failed to accommodate his complex needs.

00:31We were ignored. We weren't listened to.

00:34Our needs were ignored and weren't taken into account.

00:38Liam was denied access to the small group program

00:41for children who need additional support.

00:44He didn't get the daily help of a teacher's aide that he needed.

00:47Even a request to wear a necklace for sensory overload was refused.

00:52As a result, Liam struggled to participate and learn.

00:56How did you feel when you were going to the school?

00:59Uh...

01:02Left out and sad.

01:04I felt very different.

01:06As punishment for not finishing his work,

01:09they would keep him in at lunchtime and not let him go outside and play.

01:13Kate and Andrew begged the school to instead send Liam's work home to finish.

01:18But they wouldn't.

01:20Liam was segregated from his class, from his peers.

01:24He was the bad one and he was being called aside.

01:28And that's how he felt.

01:29That's how it made him feel.

01:30He was the...he was the problem.

01:32They watched their little boy's self-esteem disappear.

01:36It was a terrible time.

01:38Like, he was...he was not the same kid he is now when he was going to school.

01:43It was awful.

01:44Angela Burrows is the ACT branch president of the Australian Education Union.

01:50She says stories like Liam's prove the public education system is in urgent need of repair.

01:57We need to properly resource all ACT public schools.

02:00Miss Burrows also wants to see a reduction in class sizes.

02:04The class size model is so out of date, it doesn't take complexity into account.

02:09And that's a critical piece of work.

02:16I got to the point where I was contemplating suicide.

02:19It was pretty bad.

02:21It's hard to overstate the trauma Jacob Stern finds suffered at his public high school in Canberra South.

02:28Obviously it...it's affected my life, still affecting my life now.

02:32Jacob, who lives with autism, was overwhelmed by the class sizes,

02:36the unfamiliar environment and the rotation of teachers.

02:40His mum requested one-on-one support, sensory resources

02:45and a quiet space for her son to self-regulate.

02:48Every request was met with resistance.

02:51It came down to funding. The school didn't have the funding.

02:54It was infrastructure changes that needed to happen.

02:57Jacob's education suffered.

03:00I learnt more off watching people on YouTube than I did in school.

03:06He also felt isolated, excluded and was bullied relentlessly.

03:11I would say they cared more about trying to be inclusive to all races and people on the LGBTQ

03:21than they did for people with disabilities.

03:23The ABC has spoken to a dozen families across Canberra with children living with a range of disabilities

03:29who attended public schools.

03:31They all identified similar concerns, inadequate funding, a lack of resources

03:36and teachers struggling to cater to the needs of every student in their classes.

03:41The Education Minister is quick to concede there's room for improvement

03:46and assures work is already underway.

03:49She points to the inclusive education strategy and the public school system resourcing review,

03:55adding she's open to addressing outdated class sizes.

03:59What I want to make sure is that every child across every school is getting the funding that's required

04:04to give them the best possible education and that it's done sustainably.

04:09A factor often missing from this conversation is the impact on parents of children with disability.

04:16It's a really hard battle.

04:18It's for that reason ACT Parents has been pushing for government funding to start an advocacy service

04:24to help families navigate the public school system.

04:27We need to understand that parents feel really overwhelmed and very isolated in this process.

04:33It's an individual process.

04:35It's not something that there's a lot of support for.

04:38And when we support people we can actually get to better outcomes.

04:42A point that applies to students and teachers too.

04:46Rosie King, ABC News, Canberra.

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