Parents of disabled children win concessions from SA Education Department after blasting system

The Education Department has promised to do better for kids with disabilities after an SA mum told of her son’s appalling treatment, and how she felt “bullied” by a principal.

The Education Department has pledged to do better for disabled students after hearing the challenges faced by parents at the Royal Commission into discrimination against the disabled.

SA Department for Education director of inclusion, Dr Caroline Croser-Barlow, said it would respond to the system failures raised by two mothers of disabled children.

This week, mothers of disabled children Kim Langcake and a witness with the pseudonym “Isabella” told of their frustration with lost opportunities for their children in the SA school system.

When asked to respond, Dr Croser-Barlow told the Commission on Friday; “I thought that the experience of Ms Langcake and Isabella was not consistent with our expectations and fell below our expectation as a system”.

Ms Croser-Barlow said improvements would be made. Ms Langcake had complained that her son’s development had been held back because he was not challenged enough and Isabella said her son had been shuffled between five schools in two years.

Meanwhile on Thursday the Royal Commission into disability discrimination questioned the department’s lack of commitment to UN principles protecting the rights of disabled people.

Questioning Dr Croser-Barlow The Honourable Ronald Sackville AO QC, probed the government’s incorporation into policy of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.

“I don’t see in this document any reference to the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities at all,’’ he said.

Chair Sackville said: “How is it possible to develop in the state of Australia in 2022 a children and students with disability policy that makes no reference to the convention on the rights of persons with disability?”

“So it does look as though South Australia might well benefit from having a close look at the convention and incorporating relevant provisions one way or another in the documentation and guidelines are that are produced.”

Hearings of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability continued in Canberra on Friday.

Parents, advocates, past students and public servants have outlined problems with the education system.

Dr Croser-Barlow was quizzed by the commission and the role of her 800 staff questioned.

She agreed that the UN convention should be used by the department; “I agree, that it’s an oversight and or it’s an omission and I think that’s something that we can go and look at”.

Dr Croser-Barlow said the department was also considering a disability consultation body but as yet did not have one.

An SA mum has told a harrowing story about the treatment of her son, who has autism. Picture: iStock

Four schools in 18 months: ‘Incensed’ mum blasts SA system

Earlier this week, South Australian mother has told a royal commission how she was “incensed” at the treatment of her autistic son after he was shuffled through four schools in his first 18 months.

The mother, using the pseudonym Isabella, said her son “Emerson” was pushed from one government primary school to another and eventually developed behavioural issues in the mainstream system.

After four years, Emerson went to a special school, his fifth, where his needs were met, she said.

“When he started (at the special school) the transformation for him was quite amazing,’’ Isabella said.

“Instead of getting a daily run-down of what he had done (wrong), he was getting feedback on what he was achieving. It was a huge relief.

“Nothing he could do would disturb them as he reacted entirely to his emotions, and teachers knew to support him in what he was experiencing ’’

The Royal Commission into abuse of People with Disability is holding hearings in Canberra this week. Parents and advocates of people with disabilities are describing their experiences of discrimination in the education system.

Isabella praised the NDIS scheme, which began around four years after her son began primary school, and funded his “behaviour management plan”.

But she said Emerson had effectively been excluded from the mainstream school system.

“My hope is that mainstream schooling could become an option for all children,’’ she said.

Isabella said the family struck problems from the first year of school, when Emerson could only be allowed longer hours at his first primary school if his seven-year-old brother could look after him between recess and lunch.

One primary school principal told Isabella and her husband: “Well, we are not here as babysitters”, and by the age of six, Emerson had been moved to three schools.

“The principal had a surprisingly dismissive attitude,” Isabella said.

Isabella said she was incensed by the attitude of his first primary school when it prepared to assess Emerson’s progress in the first year of school, and she had asked for minor changes to make him more relaxed during the study.

The principal told them: “If the assessment does not happen tomorrow I will have to tell the department I am not prepared to have Emerson at this school”.

“I felt that I was being bullied,’’ Isabella said.

“To be honest I was incensed. I felt that the school was not going to give him a chance.”