Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby

19 August 2015

A System at Crisis Point

The Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby today releases the results of its inaugural Teachers View
Survey. 428 teachers took part in this survey and the results show that the Tasmanian Disability Education
Support System is in crisis.
The results reported that 91% of teachers surveyed believed that the current disability education system
in Tasmania is inadequate. In our view the fact that more than 9 out of every 10 teachers surveyed thought
that the system was inadequate and 65% of parents also thought the system was inadequate paints a very
clear picture of a disability education system that is failing, families, students and teachers.
Only 3% of teachers reported having no students with disability in their class, with 62% if teachers reporting
teaching between 1 and 5 student with disability. 60% of teachers told us that the number of students with
disability they are teaching has increased over the past 12 months with 48% of teachers telling us that they
received no disability specific professional development opportunities in the last 12 months.
48% of teachers reported having no Severe Disability Register (SDR) funded students in their class and 50%
reported having no 55-70 IQ funded students in their class. While 14% of teachers reported having 1 unfunded
student with disability in their class with 21% of teachers reported having 2 unfunded students with disability in
their class and 15% of teachers reported having 3 students with disability in their class.
This survey is the first time we have had the opportunity to seek the views of teachers and it is clear from the
results that just as parents are frustrated at the lack of support for their child with disability, teachers are
frustrated with the lack of support for them teaching students with disability. Teachers told us:
Adjustment based funding must be introduced and then properly moderated. The difficulty is that
teachers are now required to complete more learning plans with no additional resources. Where does
this time come from?
Students who missed last years deadline for assessment are still unfunded despite fitting the
criteria.
Only IQ students are funded, so autistic, traumatised, dyslexic etc students receive no funding. Our
school has also diverted its IQ funding from TAs to keeping class sizes reasonable in the wake of the
teacher and budget cuts. There is almost no TA support for 55-70 IQ students
There are children who need additional support who are not eligible or fall under the SDR banner. We
do not get the 55-70 IQ funding for the students in the class it is pooled and often supports the SDR
children to top up their levels of support so that they get maximum teacher assistant time and
support as there is not enough for them with their own funding.
Teachers said some of their biggest challenges were:
knowing how to support them

Teachers being prepared to broaden their perspectives and take on board the need to differentiate
and accommodate the needs of these students
Identifying where student is at, time to prepare relevant level of work
planning for and catering to individual needs, time allocation, teaching allocation, teacher assistant
support and allocation, developing and locating engaging resources.
When asked what they wanted the to Tasmanian community to know about the current disability education
support system they told us:
Its letting kids down if they are not quite fitting into a box, kids who need help are falling through the
cracks
That we are under supporting our children
That it is failing our most vulnerable and precious students on every level
Support your local schools and the principals, teachers, assistants who try every day to cater for the
increasingly complex needs of children with disabilities within our schools. Children with disability
need the voice of all community members to continue to lobby for fairness and opportunity for all
students.
Kristen Desmond, founder of the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby said
The Teachers view survey again shows that the support provided to students with disability is in desperate
need of reform. Not only do we have dissatisfied parents and carers but highly dissatisfied teachers. If this
survey shows us one thing its that the frustrations felt by parents over the lack of teacher professional
development, lack of communication and lack of resources are the same frustrations felt by many teachers.
Tasmanias schools are set up for inclusion but not resourced for it. There is no silver bullet that will fix the
situation overnight, but the issues need to be addressed. The current system is letting down, students,
teachers.
We acknowledge that the Minister for Education has initiated a review of the disability education system and
has acknowledged that the disability education support system in Tasmania is not delivering quality
educational outcomes for many students with disability. However, it is critical that the Government as a matter
of urgency addresses the systemic issues facing students with disability and schools. A needs based
resourcing model is desperately needed so that students with disability can be funded on need not on IQ.
Families and teachers continue to fight everyday for students with disability and their fundamental right to
access a quality education. It is about time that students with disability and their schools were properly
resourced and this Government needs to deliver on its promise to improve educational support for students
with disability now. The reality is that the IQ based disability funding system in Tasmanian schools is
inequitable, inadequate and failing schools and students. she said
Media contact Kristen Desmond 0448 037 064