‘Cruel’: Shocking claims about kids with disabilities

Insiders working in schools across the country have made heartbreaking and horrifying claims about what is happening with children with disabilities.

Exclusive: Children with disabilities are being put in makeshift cages or locked behind bars in schools across the country, according to shocking claims by insiders.

Behavioural practitioner, Amy Hall, who works for a national NDIS provider, and supports some of her clients in the classroom, said children were being placed in enclosures that resembled cages, with metal bars separating students from their peers.

She said seclusion areas were being used as a “misguided” means of managing challenging behaviours, instead of a last resort.

“In these spaces, students have no access to water or toilets,” Ms Hall said. “In some instances they’re outside in extreme heat or cold.”

As a supervisor of 50 allied practitioners working in mainstream and specialist schools across the country, Ms Hall said 70 per cent had reported seeing children being put in seclusion areas.

Amy Hall, a behavioural practitioner working for a leading NDIS provider, claims kids with a disability are being placed behind bars and locked gates or in makeshift cages, in schools around the country. Picture: Supplied

One mum, who did not want to be named, said her autistic son, who attended a NSW school for kids with disabilities, was regularly secluded in what she called a “prison cell”, for up to nine times a day, and up to 20 minutes at a time.

“It has a stool, a concrete floor and high bars on three sides,” she said. “It’s cruel.”

She said what he really needed was someone to help calm him down, or distract him.

Another mum said her daughter with high needs had been taken to hospital multiple times after banging her head on a concrete wall while in seclusion.

“Watching my daughter standing behind bars and screaming and being left on her own is heartbreaking,” she said.

She did not blame teachers, but a lack of funding and appropriate training.

“My daughter has extreme behaviours. She has scratched, kicked and bitten teachers. I think the point is, ‘How can we fix this?’

“These schools are desperately understaffed.”

Ms Hall, who has been inside these enclosures with her clients, said she also knew of a non-verbal autistic seven-year-old, who goes to a mainstream primary school, who often spent most of his day in a locked enclosure.

An alleged makeshift cage using two mini goal nets, where at least one child was placed during an assembly at a QLD school. Picture: Supplied

At another school in Queensland, Ms Hall said another practitioner had reported at least one child was put in a makeshift cage using two mini goal nets during a presentation.

Ms Hall said many of the practices were embedded in some schools and what was needed was a policy change and education so better methods for de-escalating situations were employed.

“There needs to be a cultural shift,” Ms Hall said.

She did not want to demonise teachers who were “really hard working, extremely time poor and under-resourced”.

“It’s cheaper to lock children in a cage rather than hire another teacher to come in and help,” Ms Hall said.

Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare, said these reports were “disturbing”.

He said he was currently working with state and territory colleagues to get all public schools to their full and fair funding level.

“We have put $16 billion in additional funding for public schools on the table – this would be the biggest increase in Commonwealth funding to public schools that has ever been delivered.

“We have reached agreements with WA and the NT. I want to do the same with the other states and territories.

“This isn’t a blank cheque. This funding will be tied to reforms.”

A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said it was “committed to reducing and eliminating the unnecessary and inappropriate use of restrictive practices in schools” and was considering the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission, including those in relation to restrictive practices.

Originally published as ‘Cruel’: Shocking claims about kids with disabilities