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School cage scandal reforms beset by failed deadlines

Katie Burgess

Changes recommended after the 2015 boy-in-a-cage scandal have again been the subject of time blowouts, a delay ACT Education minister Yvette Berry blamed on the need for collaboration across several arms of government.

An expert panel called for wide-ranging reforms to how schools handled children with complex or challenging behaviours, after a 10-year-old boy with autism was locked inside a cage at a Canberra school.

SOfASD submission on disability employment in the ACT

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.

recognise behavioural clinicians in the ACT

Ms Y Berry MLA
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development
Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
GPO Box 1020
Canberra ACT 2601

 

Dear Ms Berry MLA

Subject: recognise behavioural clinicians in the ACT

Thank you for your response (29/3/2017) to our emails.

SOfASD is disappointed that you chose to deny implicitly our request to meet (made in our letter 30/1/2017).

In your response, you wrote:

submission to ACT Students with Disability Review

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.

Disability advocate calls for end of segregated classes for disabled students in ACT schools

Andrew Brown

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.

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