SOfASD made a submission to the ACT Assembly Standing Committee on Health, Ageing and Community Services for its Inquiry into the Employment of people with disabilities.
The submission concludes:
Little is known about employment outcomes for autistic people in the ACT. It is likely that employment outcomes for autistic people are as dismal in the ACT as they are nationally.
Disability policy and programs will not deliver equitable outcomes for autistic people until programs recognise ASD is a distinct disability.
SOfASD made a submission to the ACT Students with Disability Review.
Executive Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a distinct type of disability; it is not a sub-type of intellectual disability or developmental delay.
The number of autistic students, that is students diagnosed with ASD, has increased to a point where there are now more autistic students than students with intellectual disability. Between 30% and 50% of autistic students also have intellectual disability.
The director of a Canberra-based disability advocacy group is calling for more support to allow students with disabilities to be moved away from segregated classes and into mainstream classes.
Jan Kruger, the director of Imagine More, said segregated classes are setting disabled students up for failure, and urged for more funding to allow them to better integrate into mainstream classes with their peers.
Ms Y Berry MLA Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development GPO Box 1020, Canberra, ACT 2601
Dear Minister
School is starting in 2017 again without discernible progress toward services and support for student with, or at risk of developing, problem/challenging behaviour.
On the 25/2/2016 the former ACT Education Minister wrote to our organisation saying "Senior psychologists are highly experienced in behaviour management". SOfASD wrote back (4/4/2016) asking:
Thank you for your email of 22 December 2016 regarding issues with funding for out-of-home support for young people with disability through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Social media is reporting that many people who receive the Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) are being cut off in January despite having provided proof they are enrolled to study to Centrelink.
After discussions with Centrelink Staff it is very clear that the necessary staffing levels are not available to process the completed forms even when they are returned immediately by post or even handed directly to them at a Centrelink Office. This means that the "Computer" automatically cuts you off from that payment. The Pensioner then receives a letter saying their PES has been ceased because the person has completed their study.
Centrelink staff may tell you it is not necessary to ring them to complain and request the payment be reinstated automatically. This however does not match the instructions on the letters sent out which state if you disagree with their decision to call the Complaints number provided.
Below is the NDIA's disappointing response to a personal letter about the NDIS halting its intake in the ACT.
As usual, the NDIA's response fails to answer the very simple question asked. And it fails to address the key issues raised in the letter.
What the response does show is that the original commitment to Australian's with disability, that the Commonwealth would fund any NDIS participants above the initial estimates, was a incorrect. The response shows that official lied about the initial NDIS agreement and progress of the NDIS in the ACT depended on a new NDIS agreement being struck in November 2016.
