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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 3388 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

There are a number of things that have been happening in the area of youth and children's education. Mr Deputy Speaker, government policy is based on the belief that all Canberrans, regardless of their background, must have equal access to education. That principle applies equally to students with disabilities. The Government is committed to maintaining funding for special education. In addition, we fund four special schools - the Woden school, the Koomarri school, the Cranleigh school and the Malkara school. Indeed, the Koomarri school is having its graduation tonight, which I hope to attend.

Also, Mr Deputy Speaker, we fund a special program at the Turner school. We have special units at a number of schools - namely, Chisholm, Garran and Mount Neighbour primary schools. There are college-level specialist programs which are offered at convenient locations - at the Canberra College, at the Phillip campus and at Dickson College. This year approximately 70 per cent of the 1,500 or so students with disabilities in our government school system are being educated in mainstream schools and they receive additional support. In 1998, approximately 480 students are attending those special settings that I mentioned, Mr Deputy Speaker.

We are constantly working to find more effective and indeed creative ways of meeting the needs. For example, in 1996 there was a review of services to students with disabilities in ACT government schools. It made a number of recommendations. One of the recommendations suggested allocating resources to students based on their educational needs regardless of the setting they attended. The consultation process demonstrated very strong support for that recommendation.

In seeking a mechanism for determining educational need, my department has negotiated with the Victorian Department of Education to trial its educational needs assessment questionnaire - a model similar to the current resource model used for special settings. In line with the recommendations from the special education review, it encompasses a wide range of needs and allows for more discrimination between different levels of need. During term 2 of this year, parents met with school and department personnel to discuss their children's various educational needs in a number of areas. In terms of recommending to introduce the Victorian resource model, the reference group has stated that that should be deferred until 2000. That will give the group more time to explore the best ways of adopting that model to suit our particular needs in the ACT.

We provide support ranging over a wide area for students with disabilities. We have a number of early intervention programs. This is crucial to giving young people with disabilities a sound start. These are provided through CHADS and they are for children from birth to 12 years of age. The CHADS therapy services - that is, Child Health and Development Services - are provided for children unless they are attending a special school. Children with severe to profound disabilities attending special schools receive support from the disability program, ACT Community Care.

For 18-month to three-year-olds, we have playgroups at CHADS and, for three- to five-year-olds, we have eight early intervention units. They operate alongside regular preschools. Also for three- to five-year-olds we have the autism intervention unit and the language preschool, which provides an educational program for children with a severe language delay or language disorder. For three- to six-year-olds, we have special schools.

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