Budget blow for disabled students
CHILDREN with disability have been left out again in the Federal Budget, say parent and teacher groups.
The state’s children would be left under-funded and worse off than interstate counterparts, Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby founder Kristen Desmond said.
A new way of funding according to need — rather than IQ — was meant to kick in this year or next year.
“It puts our students at a disadvantage again,” Ms Desmond said.
She said interim funding was rolled over with an indexation increase but the overhaul was not funded. Children are allocated funding for assistance if they are on the Severe Disability Register — with an IQ below 55 — or they fall into the 55 to 70 range. Thousands could miss out. “They could include Down syndrome, ADHD, hearing or sight impairment,” she said.
Schools had to find funding for those children from their resource packages.
Ms Desmond has three children with autism.
A Federal Government spokeswoman said state governments were responsible.
“A needs based disability loading for Commonwealth funding began in 2014. At the request of states and territories, it is based on each individual state government definition of disability,’’ she said.
“From 2016, Commonwealth funding will be informed by the National Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability so all students with disability are funded on the same basis.”
She said a record $1.3 billion would be spent in 2015-16.
Australian Education Union Tasmanian president Terry Polglase said students with disability in Tasmanian schools were particularly hard hit.
“The Abbott Government promised before the 2013 election that it would implement the full disability loading in 2015 and this has not been delivered,” Mr Polglase said.
“Christopher Pyne claims of ‘a record $1.3 billion being provided in 2015-16, and more than $5 billion over 2014-17 through the funding loading for students with a disability’ is nothing more than a rollover of temporary indexation,” he said.