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Tracy – We thoroughly appreciate the issues you raise in your posting. They echo those of many others over time. Advocacy for change finally contributed to the NSW Legislature unanimously passing an amendment to the New South Wales Education Act in December 2008, entitled Educational Support for Children with Significant Learning Difficulties.
To quote from this New South Wales Bill, it is: An Act to ensure that children with significant learning difficulties are included in the NSW Government’s Special Education Initiative for students with special needs – and for the purposes of this Bill subsection (1) (a1) states that - a child has a significant learning difficulty if a qualified teacher or other qualified education professional is of the opinion that the child is not, regardless of the cause, performing in the basic educational areas
of reading, writing, spelling and mathematics in accordance with the child’s peer age group and stage of learning.
This NSW Bill will hopefully eventually prove to be the milestone that helped bring about more equitable provision of additional learning support so those children with significant learning difficulties can expect to achieve, in school and in their daily lives, to the best of their potential. However, so far the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) has chosen not to even inform schools about this legislation and the current situation for support remains as follows.
NSW funding to provide additional learning support for children identified with significant learning difficulties, including those whose learning can be further complicated by ADHD and ODD, is limited and can be difficult to access, especially for rural families as often Department (DET) and/or school specialist resources intended for this purpose are scarce. These children have special learning needs.
According to NSW DET: Children with special learning needs refers to children with learning difficulties, a behaviour disorder and/or a disability. DET advises: if you believe your child has special learning needs that require additional assistance please contact the principal at your child's school. The principal will consider your child's needs in consultation with the school’s Learning Support Team [and] will assist you to find the right schooling option for your child, taking into account your choice, your child’s specific additional learning needs and proximity to local specialist services.
http://www.det.nsw.edu.au/disabilityaccess
Funded (some State and some Commonwealth) options for children with “confirmed” disabilities can be in regular classes or support classes in regular schools, or special schools - subject to regional placement panel procedures. The NSW funded option for those children whose special learning needs, identified as significant learning difficulties, is meant to be provided through The Learning Assistance Program.
The Learning Assistance Program is ostensibly available is all public schools and according to DET “provides an extensive range of specialist services to support any student in a regular class experiencing difficulties in learning … regardless of cause … [but including] support for those students with significant learning difficulties, mild intellectual disabilities and language disorders. http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/studentsupport/programs/lrngdifficulty.php
For children living in rural and regional NSW with special learning needs, “experiencing severe learning disorders”, assessment and remedial support is provided by the Dalwood Assessment Centre and Palm Avenue School – a joint DET and NSW Health facility. Assessment is provided free of charge and families living more than 200kms from Sydney are eligible for transportation and accommodation assistance under the Isolated Patients Travel Assistance Scheme.
These are children “whose school progress is significantly delayed despite having adequate intellectual abilities and opportunity to learn”, which affects 5% of children. http://www.nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au/services/dalwood/LearnDiffInfo/Index.htm
To read in detail more about the information above, go to: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/studentsupport/programs/lrngdifficulty.php There are also links on the right-hand side of the first page to even DET further information such as Policy: Assisting Children with Learning Difficulties. At the bottom of the page you will find a link to the phone numbers of all the DET regional offices and there is a Learning Difficulties Co-ordinator in each office.
Tracy, we hope this information may be of some help to you and would be interested to know what support you and your boy receive. |