Success For All - Every School, Every Child

  • Rodney Hide
Education

Associate Minister of Education Rodney Hide today launched 'Success for All - Every School, Every Child', the Government's response to the Special Education Review.  The plan sets out changes to be made over four years to ensure children with special needs get a fair deal. 

"'Success for All' is about schools getting ready for all children, whatever their needs.  Everyone in education needs to make sure every child gets a fair go," Mr Hide said.

"In its June 2010 evaluation, the Education Review Office found that at present, only 50 percent of schools are fully inclusive.  That's not good enough. 

"I have set a target of 80 percent of schools being fully inclusive of students with special needs by 2014, with the remaining 20 percent clearly on the way

"The Government has allocated an additional $69 million over four years to special education initiatives in the past two budgets. 

"Eleven hundred more children will get support from the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS), and a further 1,000 will be able to get specialist support in their first three years of school.  There will be more flexible services and support for deaf, blind or low vision children.

"Special schools that support children with very high needs will be retained, and encouraged to provide more specialist out-reach teaching.

"There will be more focus on teaching children with special education needs in initial teacher education. 

"Government agencies - including the Ministry of Education and the Office for Disability Issues - and the disability community will work together to improve awareness of the challenges facing people with disabilities.

"Parents need good information without having to fight for it.  They need to see that their child belongs, has friends, is learning, and is getting the extra help they need when they need it. 

"This Government understands that going to school and learning needs to be a positive experience for all children and young people - including those with special education needs. 

"I look forward to working to achieve a fully inclusive education system by 2014," Mr Hide said.

Further information is available on:
www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/SpecialEducation.aspx

Q & A

 

How students will benefit from Success for All

  • An additional 1,100 students in Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS).
  • 1,000 more children aged five to eight years will receive individualised specialist support to support them in their first three years of school; some of these children will be those who have not attended an early childhood centre.
  • A more flexible service for students verified for ORRS with sensory impairments. Teaching resources will be allocated to Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ) and the two Deaf Education Centres (DECs) meaning students will have more access to specialist teachers, interpreters or note takers.
  • Special schools will be encouraged to provide an outreach service to provide specialist teacher support to children in mainstream settings.

 

How schools will benefit from Success for All

  • The New Zealand Teachers Council will require teacher education providers to include a focus on inclusive education in future initial teacher education programmes.
  • The Ministry of Education will review existing training programmes for boards of trustees and principals to ensure that they cover expectations and requirements for educating students with special needs.
  • The Ministry will include a focus on students with special education needs in current programmes of work such as the Student Achievement Function and Professional Learning and Development contracts.
  • The changes already announced for the transformation of Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) clusters will mean greater consistency of practice across the country.

 

How families and whanau will benefit from Success for All

  • Reduced bureaucracy for children who are clearly eligible for ORRS.
  • Assessment will focus on the level of need, rather than the level of disability.

 

 

What does a "fully inclusive education system" look like?

  • The 2010 Education Review Office (ERO) report ‘Including Students with High Needs' indicated that a fully inclusive school has:
  1. strong ethical leadership and standards
  2. coordinated and informed approaches to including all students
  3. innovative and flexible practice.
  • The report provides detailed indicators and self-review checklists for schools to use as they build inclusive practices.

 

What sort of specialist services will be available for students with a sensory impairment?

From 2012:

  • ORRS teacher and teacher aide time for students with a sensory impairment will be transferred to BLENNZ and the two DECs for allocation nationally.
  • This will mean that they have more flexibility to customise the specialist resource needed by students with sensory impairment.
  • This could include more specialist resource teacher time for blind children, notetaker or interpreters for deaf children.
  • The Ministry will work with BLENNZ, the DECs and the schools where the students are enrolled over the next year to ensure that students receive a service that best meets their individual needs.

 

How much money is being spent?

  • $6.4 million per year ($25.6 million over four years) to give approximately 1000 children aged five to eight years access to individualised additional support.
  • $51 million over four years to extend ORRS by 1100 places (funding approved in Budget 2009).
  • Government currently invests approximately $460 million per annum to support students with special education needs - this includes $136 million per annum for the ORRS, $68 million per annum for the Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour service and $37 million per annum for early intervention services.

 

What changes will there be for special schools?

  • Special schools will remain as an important part of the education system to ensure there are choices available for parents.
  • They will be encouraged and supported to provide out-reach specialist teaching services to support students with high and very high needs in mainstream schools.
  • This recognises the skills of specialist teachers and means more students will benefit from their expertise.
  • For some special schools there will be no change because they are already providing out-reach services effectively.

 

Who will be involved?

  • Everyone needs to be involved - boards, principals, teachers, Ministry of Education staff, the disability sector, providers, students and parents - everyone who currently supports students with special education needs.