WA Primary Principals Association demands more funding for kids with disabilities in mainstream schools

Principals have revealed kids with disabilities at mainstream public schools are not getting the funding and support they need — with facilities such as costly hydrotherapy pools sometimes sitting idle because a school struggles to find people to staff it. The WA Primary Principals Association said that without much-needed reforms, Endorsed Educational Support Programs offered in mainstream schools risked damaging the wellbeing of staff and students. “School leaders across WA consistently report significant systemic barriers to achieving effective inclusion under this model due to underfunding, inconsistent policies, stretched professional supports, and inadequate infrastructure,” it said in a new position paper. The association has called on the Education Department to create a new classification for mainstream schools which have integrated education support programs. It also wants extra funding allocated for their specific needs, such as smaller class sizes or access to psychologists. The paper said bolting an “endorsed program” onto a mainstream school did not provide the same level of support that kids with disability got in specialist education support schools or education support centres. Autistic students had to wait an average two years to receive a diagnosis, which meant they sat in classes with low funding support. “Some students have profound needs and can display high levels of aggression when dysregulated,” it said. Principals also want more training for teachers and education assistants in teaching children with disabilities. “Schools with hydrotherapy pools struggle to find EA staff to work in the pool with students,” the paper said. There are 21 Endorsed Education Support Programs in WA primary and high schools now, but their number is growing. WAPPA president Niel Smith said there were concerns the challenges seen in the EESP model would intensify as all schools became increasingly inclusive. “Schools need to be resourced properly to cater for the needs of all students,” he said. “That’s the purpose of our paper, to draw attention to the fact that the 21 that are there are currently not working as well as the department hoped. “But longer term, there are alarm bells, if the plan is to make every single local school capable to take any enrolment, regardless of ability or disability, which is what was proposed in the disability royal commission.” Mr Smith stressed that principals were not “anti-inclusion.” They wanted parents to have choice, and for those choices to be resourced appropriately. “Some of the schools have therapy pools, which would indicate that’s a good thing for supporting students with disability,” he said. “But sometimes the therapy pools can sit there unused, still costing the school $10,000 a year for utilities bills, because they don’t have the staff to run the therapy.” Mr Smith said a student in an Education Support School or Centre got a specific level of individual disability funding, but that could drop significantly if they moved to an EESP. “It makes little sense that a student can move from a fully specialised facility to a hybrid model and have their individual funding allocation reduced, rather than increased,” he said.