Minister Welcomes OAG Report On Special Education
Hon Heather Roy, Associate Minister Of Education

Thursday, October 29 2009

Associate Minister of Education Heather Roy today welcomed the tabling in Parliament of a report by the Auditor-General on the Ministry of Education’s management of four initiatives to support school-age students it assesses as having the highest level of special need.

"This is particularly timely given the current review of special education. The Government needs to know what works in special education; the report tabled today will assist in this and inform the review," Mrs Roy said.

"The report identified concerns around timeliness and national consistency in identifying students, determining levels of need, assessment and monitoring. Ensuring that parents can access information about their child’s eligibility for assistance was also raised.

"The report has made 10 recommendations for improvement. These focus on identifying the level of need for special education support, providing better guidance about eligibility for support, ensuring greater consistency in processes, and the need for national monitoring.

"The Ministry currently provides services for more than 30,000 children and young people with disabilities, developmental delay or presenting with severe and challenging behaviour. These services involve working directly with the child, their family or teacher.

"Work has already been underway for six months to address many of these concerns - particularly those around consistent processes, decreasing its waiting lists for access to services, and the provision of information to allow parents to make informed decisions. The report acknowledges this. As always there is room for improvement and, while the Ministry has a number of basic systems and processes in place, some of these need to be improved.

"This report will inform the Special Education Review and help Government ensure special education policies and processes are fair and consistent, reach those most in need, make the best use of funding and of the expertise needed to support these children," Mrs Roy said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media