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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 5095 ..

MS GALLAGHER (continuing):

be some hiccups along the way with how that went. I have been kept well briefed by the department in terms of how the process has been going.

Ms Dundas, you have written to me about some of the privacy issues around the process, to which I have responded, I believe. I have signed a letter to you which has certainly taken on board the comments which that constituent made. We have increased the security and privacy arrangements for students going through that process.

I think it is also fair to say that we wanted to get this work done this year to assist in terms of decisions around the funding for students with disabilities as we enter a new budgetary process. The work previously hadn't been done to assess the need of students in the sector. While I think the number of students with disabilities was remaining fairly stable, with slight increases particularly around children with autism, the money that had been allocated for students with disabilities doesn't necessarily take into consideration the extra support needs that those students have.

It was very important to go through and individually assess each child around what they need to participate in their education rather than the need to address issues around their disability. I have said to people, as I have met with them during the year whilst this process has been implemented, that there would always be, I would imagine, some change to this process.

But it was very important that we got this work done and that the 1,800 were assessed within the time that I needed to consider any impact that this may have on allocations for students with disabilities. There was certainly a great deal of work that went into putting that package together, not only through the working group but from experts in the disability area who, from information I have been given, have put together a best-practice model in terms of assessing the needs for resourcing for students with disabilities in our schools. I should also say that we are working with the non-government schools to see how that process can be used to assess the needs in the non-government sector as well.

MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Dundas?

MS DUNDAS: Minister, you mentioned the need to look at funding and how it is allocated and that is part of this process. How will parents be informed of the SDA points or the additional hours that their children will receive as a result of this SCAN assessment process?

MS GALLAGHER: I might take that on notice because I am not certain in terms of the information that is relayed to parents about the level of detail. There has been some concern about stigmatisation of some students in relation to how much detail you give about their resource needs. We don't want a situation where someone says that they are a 0.4 or a 0.8. I have sought advice from the department about that. A parent, a carer or a stakeholder might believe that if you answer questions in a certain way that will immediately give you such-and-such amount of points. There are some difficulties about that. I am happy to get back to you, but I don't know the outcome of that. We just need to be a bit sensitive about it, particularly in its first year.

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