Not Quite Special Enough?
Children with a range of special education needs are just as entitled as any others to have the opportunity to reach their full potential at school. It should be a right – not just a possibility.
Not all disabilities are of an intellectual nature although that seems to be the prerequisite for special school enrolment. Some children with autism or behavior disorders, for example, struggle to achieve their potential in a mainstream setting for a whole range of reasons.
It’s equally obvious that some under-resourced mainstream schools may find it difficult to deliver best outcomes for these students, despite their best intentions.
It’s a really big call when parents decide, hopefully with supportive and informed advice, that their child’s best education prospects would be served by placement in a specialist school setting. In my experience this is never a parents first option - for despite our best efforts there is still some stigma attached to special schools and special students because of lingering community ignorance, misinformation and prejudice, sometime exacerbated by their perceived disruptive behaviour or the diversion of resources in mainstream classes.
Which school, mainstream or one of a variety of specialist settings; is something that needs to be decided by the child’s parents and education professionals on a case by case basis. It shouldn’t be determined by some arbitrary, impersonal and inflexible criteria. And it shouldn’t need ASCIV intervention to achieve a sensible outcome.
Stephen and I count many of our specialist school members as among the best examples of effective schools in terms of management, governance and delivery of best outcomes for their students.
If, as I suspect (we're not talking rocket science here) legitimate demand exceeds places available, we simply need more specialist schools/settings – not a more restrictive criteria. Or are these special children “not really that special” – not worth the extra investment?
There are people taking big decisions out there in the Victorian school community in the best interests of these childfren. Let’s hope they will now get the level of support they really need from St Andrew’s Place.