As Chair of the inquiry, Abigail took note of the recently tabled final report into the experiences of children and young people with disability in NSW educational settings.
Abigail said:
I take note of the report of Portfolio Committee No. 3 entitled Children and young people with disability in New South Wales educational settings. Safe, quality and inclusive education is a fundamental human right for all children and young people in our community. Despite that simple statement being recognised and agreed upon by most, it is sadly not the reality for many within the New South Wales education system.
Almost a year ago, on 29 September 2023, the disability royal commission handed down its historic final report, which offered a vision for an inclusive Australia. The report was underpinned by 222 recommendations for change, 131 of which were directed to the New South Wales Government. The report was the culmination of five years of inquiry, hearing from over 10,000 people with disability and their loved ones, advocates and representatives. They shared evidence of harrowing experiences of violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.
Volume 7 of the report, regarding inclusive education, employment and housing, detailed the persistent and systematic failure of Australian schools across all jurisdictions to consistently deliver safe and inclusive education for students with disability. It told a story of the dire need for a significant overhaul of our mainstream education systems to remove barriers to access for people with disability—barriers created by a lack of meaningful inclusion and deeply entrenched ableism. The commission emphasised that inclusive education is the genesis of an inclusive society and that a significant transformation of Australia's education systems is required in order to achieve that goal, alongside coordinated commitment from all levels of government and society. It was in that context that, as chair of the education committee, I was pleased to establish the inquiry with multipartisan support.
Our aim was to explore the themes and issues raised by the disability royal commission and to understand exactly how they relate to the New South Wales context and how experiences of disability are felt across all realms of the education systems, from private to public schools, mainstream to segregated, and early childhood to TAFE and university. Our inquiry ran for over eight months and sought to examine the extent to which our education system and framework are currently providing safe, quality and inclusive education to children and young people with disability. The committee received 94 submissions from people with disability and their families, carers, advocates and representatives, as well as educators and government bodies and departments. We heard from 74 witnesses across four public hearings. We held multiple site visits to schools across the State and held a roundtable discussion to hear directly from children and young people with disability.
The inquiry received 190 responses from individual participants to an online questionnaire, which was developed in consultation with the New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability to ensure that as many individuals as possible were able to have their voices heard. I thank the Council for Intellectual Disability sincerely for its help in that regard, for the briefing it provided the committee ahead of our first hearing and for its exemplary advocacy over the years.
Our inquiry was also the first of its kind in the history of the New South Wales Parliament to provide Auslan interpretation at every hearing and Easy Read documentation, and to produce Auslan and Easy Read versions of the committee's final report. I thank the committee secretariat, the Auslan interpreters and all those involved in establishing that ground-breaking, inclusive and accessible committee process. Parliament should be accessible for everyone in our democracy, and I hope that our inquiry will pave the way for inclusivity and accessibility becoming standard practice across the entirety of Parliament's processes.
I also thank each and every person who filled out the online petition, made a submission or appeared as a witness, whether publicly or as part of our private round tables. Their evidence made a real difference. With every story we heard, committee members came that bit closer to living in their shoes. I thank all of the members who took part in the inquiry: the Hon. Anthony D'Adam, the Hon. Sarah Mitchell, the Hon. Natasha Maclaren-Jones, the Hon. Emily Suvaal, the Hon. Mark Buttigieg and the Hon. Tania Mihailuk. It was a genuine pleasure to work with them on the inquiry. Along with the hardworking committee secretariat, I acknowledge and thank Hansard, the Audio-visual and Broadcast team and all of the other parliamentary staff who keep things ticking along in this place and support members to do our best work.
Throughout the inquiry we heard story after story from students with disability and their parents, carers, siblings, friends, educators and advocates, as well as academics and legal professionals, about the exclusion and discrimination children with disability experience in our schools. On the one hand, we heard stories of children being denied entry into mainstream schools, suspended and expelled at alarming rates, subjected to cruel and restrictive practices, inappropriately funnelled into segregated settings or forced into home-schooling, and being denied critical and reasonable adjustments, accommodations and individual learning plans. We also heard shocking stories of outright discrimination, abuse, neglect and ongoing vilification.
On the other hand, we heard many stories and were fortunate to tour educational settings where things were working well—where children with disability were accepted, supported and included, with incredibly positive outcomes not just for the children themselves but also for their families and the other children in their classes. It was very clear from the inquiry that the experiences of children and young people with disability in New South Wales educational settings vary depending on the circumstances—the school, the class, the teacher, the family and the child.
The committee's final report found how profoundly the barriers created by a lack of inclusive education impact upon every aspect of a child's life, from childhood through to adulthood, in their family and social life, in employment, in accessing housing and health services, in being overrepresented in the justice system and more. Those lifelong consequences impact not only the individual with disability but also their siblings, families, parents, carers, peers and friends. They reinforce prejudice, discrimination, ableism and exclusion in society. In turn, that perpetuates an education system that is not inclusive, safe or accessible for students with disability in all cases.
If inclusive education is the genesis of an inclusive society, then by eliminating discrimination and ableism in our schools and insisting upon inclusion as early as possible we can begin to dismantle it across our broader society. As a result, our report made over 20 findings and 28 recommendations, many of which are closely aligned with those of the disability royal commission, to propose a plan for overhauling our entire education system. Any hope of achieving a world where students with disability can engage in meaningful and inclusive education will necessitate significant investment in a high-quality public education system, with highly skilled educators who are valued and adequately paid.
For more than a decade of Coalition government in New South Wales, our public education system was slowly but surely stripped of funding and resources as public money was increasingly funnelled toward private schools. As the NSW Teachers Federation noted in its submission to the inquiry, 98 per cent of Australia's public schools are underfunded, receiving below the Schooling Resource Standard. Educators from within the public education system shared evidence at hearings about the tangible impact that has had on schools' abilities to adequately support all students, especially students who require adjustments or accommodations to facilitate their learning and wellbeing. How can we expect our teachers to fully support and teach our children if we do not properly equip them with the tools, support, training and resources to do so?
Witnesses, including educators, students with disability and their families and advocates, spoke of the extreme burnout and turnover rife within schools and the chronic shortage of appropriately qualified teachers, counsellors and support staff. That is why the report calls for an adjustment of the resource allocation model to ensure targeted funding for learning and support teachers to be employed on a permanent full-time basis in mainstream public school settings, in addition to calling for sustainable long-term investment in quality and appropriate infrastructure and incentives for educators, including qualified special educators and school learning support officers. The report also makes several recommendations in relation to bolstering and incentivising teacher qualifications, accreditation requirements and continuous professional development in relation to supporting students with disability to ensure all educators are better equipped to meet the learning needs of students with disability.
An overwhelming number of witnesses, including people with lived experience as well as expert advocates, described segregated education as being a "false choice". When presented with the option of either a mainstream setting that is completely inaccessible, not inclusive and oftentimes unsafe, or a segregated setting, students and their families are unable to make a real choice. Students with disability are increasingly being channelled into segregated schools and classes because our mainstream education system is not equipped to provide the necessary supports and resources that children with disability need.
In speaking about this false choice which prevents inclusion, witnesses explained that the positive experiences of families with segregated settings should be celebrated. However, those experiences do not negate the fact that, at a systemic level, it is not the best outcome our society could offer our children. A system that is genuinely inclusive and safe without exception could offer enormous academic and social outcomes. That is why the committee was unanimous in recommending a shift toward an education system across both government and non-government sectors that focuses on the rights of the child with disability rather than the narrower interests of the school to enable more students to transition to mainstream inclusive school settings.
Another clear set of findings related to how exclusionary discipline such as suspension, expulsion and restrictive practices are being used inappropriately against students with disability as a means of punishment instead of providing the student with the necessary supports. In addition, students are too often being denied reasonable adjustments that are critical for their learning and wellbeing. In response to those concerning findings, the report makes several recommendations, including creating clear guidelines for compliance with statutory obligations to provide reasonable adjustments, action to reduce the use of restrictive practices in line with the disability royal commission's recommendations, a shift in our model of behaviour management from positive behaviour learning to a trauma-informed approach, and providing greater support for students currently disengaged from the school system to transition back to school.
The committee also recommends the creation of an independent body to not only resolve disputes between families and schools as they arise but also support, advocate and investigate on behalf of children with disability and their families. Such a body should have jurisdiction over the education of all school-aged children, including at government and non-government schools, TAFE, vocational education providers, universities, early childhood education settings, home education and children not in any educational setting. It should be empowered to act in relation to a range of issues, including dispute resolution for suspensions and expulsions, reasonable adjustments, improving data collection, advising on a transition to inclusive education, investigating systemic ableism and discrimination, and more. Independent oversight with those capabilities would ensure a genuine, transparent and accountable mechanism for monitoring complaints and ensuring inclusive education across the State.
The inquiry made clear that our current anti-discrimination laws are inadequate and do not properly protect people with disability against discrimination. That is why the report recommends that we must go further than simply legislating against discrimination and amend the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 to include a positive duty on educational institutions to provide reasonable adjustments for a person with disability. That is currently in place in some jurisdictions and was a key recommendation of the disability royal commission. The report also calls for the NSW Law Reform Commission to review existing private school exemptions in our anti‑discrimination laws because no school should be legally allowed to discriminate against a student on the basis of their disability.
The disability royal commission's final report and vision for an inclusive Australia filled the disability community with hope that all those who bared their souls and bravely shared their stories with Australia would finally be heard by all levels of government and real action would be taken to implement the changes we need to create an inclusive society that fully realises and protects the human rights of people with disability. Nine months after the final report was published, the Australian Government and the New South Wales Government both delivered shockingly woeful and inadequate responses to the commission's recommendations for change, which the disability community publicly labelled an utter betrayal and a failure of leadership.
Now, with the release of this inquiry's report, the New South Wales Government is faced with another opportunity to show the disability community it is serious about listening to people with disability and their representatives when it comes to creating an inclusive society, beginning with reforming our education system and building inclusion into our systems, policies and practices. At a time when the disability community is feeling not only disappointed but also under attack from both State and Federal Labor governments, it is crucial that the New South Wales Labor Government takes the action we need to begin creating a truly inclusive society that values people with disability exactly as they are and provides opportunities for all to grow and thrive.
Through each piece of evidence, the deep structural flaws inherent in our education system were made clear, as well as how urgently we need to overhaul our practices, policies and laws if we are to begin changing the attitudes ingrained in society that devalue, exclude and neglect people with disability. The report does not propose every possible solution to do that. However, in sharing the stories of those who bravely gave evidence and by agreeing across political lines on a pathway forward, we have taken further steps forward in paving the way for inclusive education and, ultimately, an inclusive society. Now we just need a government ambitious enough to act on it. I look forward to the Government responding to the report and implementing these important recommendations for change.
Read the transcript in Hansard here.
24 September 2024
Other members who participated in the inquiry also spoke about the inquiry process, after which Abigail spoke in reply.
Abigail said:
In reply: I sincerely thank all members who took the time to contribute to debate on the report entitled Children and young people with disability in New South Wales educational settings. I profusely thanked all of my fellow committee members when I spoke to the report, but I now also thank the Hon. Sarah Mitchell, the Hon. Anthony D'Adam and the Hon. Tania Mihailuk, who made substantial contributions to the debate. I pick up on a couple of their comments.
The Hon. Anthony D'Adam raised an issue that deserves attention that I did not speak to when I introduced the report about positive behaviour learning versus a trauma-informed approach to so-called problematic behaviour, or children who are in need of additional support, particularly in relation to a site visit to Ajuga School. I share the honourable member's concern about the way that the teachers and representatives of the school were shepherded around by the directors of educational leadership. I found that quite weird.
There are not enough places at Ajuga School. We did not get a very clear answer as to what the waiting list was, but it was very clear that it is quite large. As I mentioned in my original contribution, a number of members raised concerns about the lack of physical accessibility at the site, as well as the additional trauma imposed on First Nations students who attend, given the history of that place. That brings to light the tension between preserving the heritage of a building and acknowledging that, if we are going to use it as a safe place for children who are suffering from trauma, we should potentially look at other sites.
I acknowledge that people at the school told us they were very happy with the site because it is on a great property with lots of outdoor and green space. That is absolutely a bonus and a pro for that particular site. However, I do not think it can get past its limitations, particularly around physical accessibility. It is not good enough for a public school in New South Wales in 2024. I underline the recommendation that there should be more places for children who have been through a really hard time and are looking for respite and for somewhere that they can go to be safe. For some people, it is really special to have such a place available.
The whole school is designed around healing and getting those children back on their feet. Some of them complete the HSC at Ajuga. A lot of them go back into mainstream settings, and that process is so valuable. To think that it is not available to everybody who needs it is a bit heartbreaking. Being able to deal with the root trauma at the heart of a lot of those children's behaviours would also relieve schools that do not necessarily have the same resources from having to try to provide that healing space, when they simply cannot do so in a mainstream setting.
Ajuga School was one example. The other example that the Hon. Anthony D'Adam brought up was the evidence that many people in the deaf community would prefer to have a separate school where everything is designed around them. Those two examples of special-purpose schools outside of the mainstream were really interesting and challenging for those of us who are absolutely in favour of inclusive education. Personally, I see those spaces as offering a different type of inclusive education because they are designed with the child at heart, and getting what is best for the child, as opposed to a segregated system where some people are put in the too‑hard basket.
The other point I raise is in relation to the comments from the Hon. Sarah Mitchell and the Hon. Tania Mihailuk about the Anti-Discrimination Act recommendations. The Opposition wrote a dissenting report about just one of those recommendations, and the Hon. Tania Mihailuk objected to both of the recommendations. Importantly, both members talked about it not being part of the original terms of reference of the inquiry. Those dissenting reports raised the argument that people in a private setting being free from prejudice based on their disability was somehow outside the terms of reference of the inquiry. We received a lot of submissions that dealt with it, and a number of terms of reference also include the concept—for example, paragraph (i), which is "the measures necessary to ensure the learning environment is safe and inclusive for all students, teachers and school support staff".
A number of people submitting to the inquiry read that and said, "The fact that private or non-government schools are exempt from needing to treat people with disability without discrimination is a problem. It is an obstacle, and getting rid of that is a measure necessary to ensure a safe learning environment." That obviously flows, and we saw that in the submissions that dealt with it. Similarly, paragraph (p) in the terms of reference refers to "measures to implement the disability royal commission's recommendations in relation to inclusive education", which, again, included both recommendations that were the subject of some small dissent. I put that on the record. No-one was ambushed. There was certainly no scheme, as it was called at one point in the dissenting statement, to wage some sort of culture war. It would be easy if we could just say that there is no impact from the fact that private schools can discriminate against a person simply because they have disability, but it is not the case. It is not what the evidence brought up. It is, by its very nature, vital for us to reform that if we are to have a truly safe and inclusive education for all students. I commend the report to the House.
The PRESIDENT: The question is that the House take note of the report.
Motion agreed to.
Read the transcript in Hansard here.
22 October 2024