Most school children with a disability attend regular classes

abs.gov.au/education

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Inclusive EducationNCID has strongly advocated for inclusive education and written several Interaction editions specifically on Inclusive Education.

By this we mean a student attending a regular school in the regular classroom with a reasonable adjustments as required but using the same subject material as that being taught to the whole class.

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ABS media release 7/8/2013This report states that

Most children with a disability attended regular classes in mainstream schools (65.9%), rather than special classes within mainstream schools (24.3%) or special schools (9.9%), according to new profiles released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

3abs.gov.au/education

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Other key findings: Most children with disability attend school, and

stay at school for longer than children without a disability.

One in ten boys at school has a disability compared with one in sixteen girls.

Half of all children with disability at school have a profound or severe limitation with a core activity.

Around 60 per cent of children with a disability at school had an intellectual disability. 4

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Just over half of all children with a disability at school received additional assistance regardless of the school setting, such as special tuition, and access to counsellors or disability support workers.

The pattern of most children with a disability attending regular classes in mainstream schools is consistent across all states and territories. However there are differences in the level of participation

in special classes in mainstream schools, with children with a disability more likely to participate in special classes in mainstream schools in Queensland relative to Western Australia. 5

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Questions that arise for NCID from this report

What number of students enrolled in mainstream school undertake Home Schooling via the school enrolment? We are aware of a large number of students around

Australia, who are home schooled because of bullying at school or behavioural issues, but they are counted as being enrolled in a regular school.

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We are also aware that while students may be enrolled in a regular school where they spend most of their time one on one with a teacher aide in or out of the classroom.

This is a form of segregation/exclusion and leaves a child in a very vulnerable situation and limits their inclusion.

In this practice model the least skilled professional staff works with the student with the highest need for skilled instruction.

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Fitting in and communication The report states students have the most

difficulty with fitting in and communication What is being done to support students to be

socially and academically included? Of the 60% of students with intellectual

disability what is the breakdown of their presence in regular classrooms/ pull out sessions/ special education in separated facilities?

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What families tell us When we are contacted by families about a child’s

inclusive education their major concerns are - Bullying of their child by other students in the school

which is not appropriately attended to by staff. Reasonable adjustments are not made in a timely way

or not made at all. Lack of skill in the technique of inclusion. Being enrolled in the regular school but spending most

class time in isolation with an aide. Achieving inclusion requires a lot of effort. 9

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ABS REPORT It is encouraging to see a report that documents

the increase of numbers of students attending mainstream facilities.

The link to undertake a deeper analysis of the data has been removed and there is no reference to education in the Disability Aging and Carers link.

This means it is difficult to validate their findings.10

abs.gov.au/education_survey