‘Naughty’ kids diagnosed with ADHD and autism fuel growth in $5bn disability school scheme
Schools around the nation are receiving huge sums from a $5bn school disability scheme. See where all the money is going and which schools are making millions.
Spiralling autism and ADHD diagnoses by teachers are fuelling growth in generous payments to schools under a $5bn-a-year scheme.
One million Australian schoolchildren are now viewed as disabled under the federal school disability payments scheme known as the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD).
Funding for the scheme, which exists in addition to the NDIS, has almost tripled in the past decade, and is expected to soar past $5bn in 2025.
The growth has primarily been in the “social and emotional category” of impairment – defined as “disturbed behaviour”, which has almost doubled over the past decade.
Experts say some kids who were once considered “naughty” or “struggling” are now given a disability diagnosis by teachers, which can attract generous funding of up to $43,000 a child paid to schools.
However, parents say they have no input in how this money is spent, and often aren’t even told their child is considered by their school to have a disability.
Disability advocates are calling for more to be done to ensure funding goes to properly support those that need it.
A News Corp special investigation has revealed that in some states more than one in four children are now considered disabled by their schools – more than twice the rate of disability in children overall, which is around 12 per cent.
The state with the highest percentage of students with a disability in the social and emotional category is the Northern Territory (47.7 per cent), followed by Tasmania (41.4 per cent), Queensland (40 per cent), Victoria (37.7 per cent), the ACT (37 per cent), New South Wales (34.4 per cent), South Australia (32.8 per cent) and Western Australia (21 per cent).
Federal funding of disability to state schools has almost tripled in the past decade under the NCCD, rising from $502m in 2015 to $994m in 2020 to $1.3bn in 2023.
Funds flowing to individual private schools hit $2bn in 2023, up from $674m in 2014.
A funding crisis
Despite the high level of funds, experts insist the money is not reaching those who need it most.
Clinical psychologist Clare Rowe questioned the operation of the scheme. “As a psychologist, I know there are children with very real and serious needs – autism, trauma, behavioural disorders, anxiety and depression. But I also know from clinic rooms that not every restless, distracted or defiant child is ‘disabled’.
“Somewhere along the way, the definition has been stretched so wide it risks losing all meaning,” she said.
Disability advocate Julie Phillips said there was “no requirement for anyone to prove the money is spent on these students at all, let alone what the funding is paid for”.
“Schools heap all the kids with disabilities together and they are babysat by aides who are untrained or barely trained,” she said.
A survey of nearly 400 disabled students and parents or carers by the Children and Young People with Disability found that despite the funds flowing into schools, there are ongoing systemic failures including bullying and exclusion, ineffective support plans, under-trained teachers and a lack of inclusion.
CEO Skye Kakoschke-Moore said the “lack of clarity over how funding is spent by schools is driving poorer experiences and outcomes for students who stand to benefit the most for additional support.”
“We are calling for better transparency by schools and for clear reporting on how government funding is supporting students with disability.”
A 2024 study of state school principals by the Australian Education Union found only 11 per cent say they have the funding they need for students with disability – down from 17 per cent in 2023.
National secretary Correna Haythorpe said “too many children with disability are being left behind because adequate funding simply isn’t there.”
Disability advocate Shantelle Marks, the mother of three children with autism, said there was “systematic misuse” of NCCD funds and a high level of secrecy.
“Schools claim the funding for students with a disability, but there’s no accountability for how it’s spent. Families rarely see it translated into support for their child, instead it disappears into general budgets, leaving kids without the adjustments they are legally entitled to.”
She said the scheme was “effectively a funding rort”.
Ms Rowe said parents are rarely consulted about NCCD funding. “Many don’t even know their child has been labelled ‘disabled’ by their school. And crucially, they have no say in how the money is spent.”
“In many cases, the funding attached to a child isn’t even directed exclusively to them. Instead, it’s pooled within the classroom to pay for a teacher’s aide who may spend much of their time managing other children with behavioural problems that don’t attract any funding at all,” she said.
Schools have told the Herald Sun their use of NCCD funding is transparent and audited each year.
Education Minister Jason Clare has previously said new agreements with the states “include important accountability and transparency measures”.
“Any school found to be doing the wrong thing will face serious consequences,” he said.
Opposition education spokesman Jonno Duniam said the “lack of transparency over the expenditure of such a large amount of taxpayers’ money is incredibly concerning.”
“The Coalition calls on the government to resolve the flaws in this scheme, and is also open to working with them on changes that will make this scheme better for families and the taxpayer.”
The growth of social and emotional disabilities
In 2024, nearly one in 10 students overall was deemed to have a social or emotional disability, up from 4 per cent in 2015.
The category is defined as “a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgment or that results in disturbed behaviour”. This includes autism, anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, reactive attachment disorder and eating disorders.
Within the disability category, those with cognitive impairment remained stable between 2015 and 2024 (around 54 per cent), physical impairments have fallen from 18.6 to 8.6 per cent and sensory impairments have decreased from 4 to 2.5 per cent. Bucking the trend, the proportion of students with social/emotional disabilities has increased from 23 per cent of the kids with disabilities to 35 per cent over the same period.
What do students with a disability need?
Grace Mitchelson, 19, from Brisbane, has autism and a number of other disabilities and is speaking up about her experiences in order to help others. “I had issues at every school I went to,” she said. “I was never properly supported academically or socially. When I asked for an IEP (Individual Education Plan), it arrived in my mother’s email inbox without any input from me,” she said.
“The NCCD funding isn’t being used properly. They keep it and use it for different areas and dilute it and use it for other kids as well.”
Ms Mitchelson said her school experience in both the state and private systems was so difficult that she developed further disabilities, including functional neurological disorder and Tourette syndrome as a result of the stress.
“I dropped out of school and have now started university and that seems to be going much better,” she said. She is now studying at Curtin University through the Open University Scheme.
Her advice to others is to “never give up”.
“Don’t stop advocating. The more voices the better. We are stronger as a collective voice,” she said.
What is the NCCD?
The NCCD scheme, introduced in 2014, relies on teachers to assess the additional learning requirements of students under different categories, attracting between $5000 and $43,000 in funding depending on the level of need.
About 300,000 students on the lowest level receive no funding.
Schools need to show a student has had a minimum of ten weeks’ assistance in the previous 12 months in order to qualify for funding, designed to allow them to participate in school activities on an equal basis as other children.
A student can still be given a disability loading even if their parent objects and consent from parents is not required. Schools are not required to disclose to teachers or parents which children are given funding.
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Originally published as ‘Naughty’ kids diagnosed with ADHD and autism fuel growth in $5bn disability school scheme
