Shortfall in special needs funding
A Motueka mother and teacher, who describes herself as a ‘‘tenacious advocate’’, managed to get her son diagnosed with autism after a seven-year battle.
But she fears that parents without her knowledge won’t get help for their special-needs children, and says that even those who do qualify for funding aren’t funded for the full amount of time they spend at school.
Kat Rayson, special needs coordinator at Brooklyn School, is part of the primary leadership team for NZEI Te Riu Roa.
She was speaking last week at Ngā Aukaha – All In For Tamariki, a hui held to kick off the education union’s new campaign around supporting tamariki with extra needs.
Rayson said she had been a Senco (special education needs co-ordinator) for many years, an ORS ( ongoing resourcing scheme) teacher, a reading recovery teacher, and a specialist learning support teacher, but she was also a mother to a child on the autism spectrum.
‘‘So I know what it feels like to be on the other side of that table, begging for help for my son, banging my head against the wall of underfunding and under-resourcing.’’
Her son was finally diagnosed at the age of 9, confirming what she had known from when he was 2 years old.
‘‘Us mothers have to be tenacious advocates. I knew the system and the system still let me down to begin with. It made me wonder about those parents who didn’t have my knowledge ... Would they stop trying? It broke my heart.’’
Hunter Grooby, 11, has had a teacher aide supporting him since he was 5 years old – which meant he could do things like go swimming and take part in Rippa Rugby and hockey tournaments, as well as get some help with his art, maths, science, technology and writing.
Grooby said the Government needed to better fund teacher aides ‘‘so kids like me can be treated like every other kid in the school and we all get the chance to be our best and not miss out’’.
Rayson described spending days applying for ORS funding for students, only to have these applications declined, as 30% of applications were.
In addition, even for students who were lucky enough to get funding, at current levels it did not cover the full amount of time that they were at school – ‘‘they don’t stop being deaf or blind, or autistic, or disabled at break times’’.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said the ORS system was within the scope of a review currently under way.
Boyack said these issues were at the forefront of Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti’s mind.
‘‘She wants to make sure we can make some change. We can’t always change everything overnight. But we know we need to make change, we need to start making that progress that I know that you want to see.’’