LONG-TIME chairperson of Wangaratta District Specialist School, Ruth Crawford, has questioned report findings in the Disability Royal Commission that recommend the phasing out of specialist schools in order to boost inclusiveness.
Ms Crawford, who also has first hand knowledge of the needs of people living with a disability, as her son Toby has cerebral palsy, believes it's too simplistic to close down special schools to create this inclusiveness in mainstream schools.
She agrees with inclusion as an approach – particularly in pre-school and primary school, as "I believe this is where the foundation of accepting ‘different as normal’ starts for children".
However, Ms Crawford said that as the academic gap grows once kids living with a disability reach secondary education and elements of acceptance and discrimination exist among older peers, problems would hold children with disability needs back on becoming the best they can be.
"Students who have the academic ability to be in mainstream schools, but have special needs, definitely need to be better catered for with better inclusive education," she said.
Latest Stories
"I suspect the two commissioners reported to have disabilities, who voted for the phase out of special education, fit into this category."
Ms Crawford said the age of students matter with this as well.
She used her son as an example because as they grow older, the academic gap between them and their peers widens such that it is completely impractical for them to be included in a mainstream school.
"When they are primary school age the academic ‘difference’ matters less and is less obvious, young children are very accepting, so that even though by grade six a ‘special’ kid like Toby is clearly not performing academically the same, he was accepted, and many students went out of their way to help him," she said.
"Students who do not have the academic ability for mainstream schools need choice.
"Some other students find mainstream does not work for them so they need the choice of special education which can cater better to their educational needs.
"These students may ‘survive’ in a current mainstream school, but current experience shows they often struggle and certainly don’t thrive, and are more likely to end up disengaging from school and not being supported with their transition to life after school."
The current practices in different Australian states and territories can offer as a guide moving forward with the Royal Commission recommendations in hand.
Ms Crawford said Toby started school when living in the ACT, and there he was able to attend a special education class that was embedded in a mainstream school.
She said they used the library and other facilities in that school, and participated in school assembly and events like school sports with the whole school.
"This was brilliant," she said.
"When we moved to Wangaratta, we found no such options exist.
"So to enable Toby to continue to be part of a mainstream school, but also receive the special education he needed, we had to do a shared enrolment – spending two to three days per week at a mainstream school and two to three days at the special school.
"For young children to have to learn two different schools, personnel and systems is a lot, and even harder when you have special needs."
Ms Crawford said a better option would have been for Toby to be able to receive the special education he needed but within a mainstream primary school environment.
"When it was time to leave primary school it was not realistic for him to go to a mainstream high school – academically his reading level was still at prep level, he needed 1:1 support to do all his school work and needed 1:1 support with all daily personal activities such as feeding, moving and transitioning," she said.
"The opportunities for children in special education are so much more then academic.
"They get to be school captain, on school council, to be included in all abilities sports carnivals, and do their deb ball.
"They are opportunities that in theory would be available to them in mainstream schools but are extremely unlikely to be taken due to shame, bullying, embarrassment and discrimination."
Ms Crawford said other factors involve children who are neuro-diverse, have difficult behaviours or learning disabilities who need enormous support to be engaged in education and have their learning needs met.
