Victorian Education Department set to cut more than 80 visiting teacher jobs

Teachers that offer crucial services helping children with disabilities at Victorian schools will be sacked in a move dubbed “disgraceful” and “deeply concerning”.

Disability advocates have slammed plans to cut 80 teachers assisting children with special needs.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed more than 80 out of 117 teachers who support an estimated 4000 children with disabilities were made redundant.

The status of the remaining 32 teachers assisting children with disabilities is in question amid concerns they will be removed from classrooms.

More than 80 teachers who assist children with disabilities have been made redundant. Picture: iStock

Disability Advocacy Victoria chair Julie Phillips called for the positions to be urgently reinstated.

“Removing these visiting teachers from schools is another deterioration of the support for children with disabilities,” Ms Phillips said.

“It forces schools and parents to rely on the NDIS, which does not allow expenditure on education.”

Ms Phillips said there were already a dozen reports from eminent statutory authorities finding Victorian schools were mistreating and neglecting students with disabilities.

 “What needs to happen is the building up and increase of support, (not) lessening it.”

Opposition education spokesman Matt Bach said: “The Labor government is not cutting 80 specialist teachers … they’re going to cut 117. That’s the entire program for children with special needs. I know Victoria is broke. But the way to fix our broken budget is not to punish kids with disabilities.”

On Thursday, Education Minister Natalie Hutchins said some of the teachers would be “moving forward into the new program, which is disability inclusion, that … is going to deliver 17 contributions across our government sector to support the assessment and rollout of disability inclusion”.

In a move dubbed a “slaughter” by one educator, more than 80 teachers who assist an estimated 4000 children with disabilities have been made redundant, the Herald Sun can reveal.

However, high-level Department of Education sources fear the cuts could be as high as 100 jobs.

This is despite assurances from the department that job losses affecting 325 full time workers would not impact school staff.

The slated redundancies have been made to the Visiting Teacher Service, a program that provides support to children with hearing, visual, physical and mental impairments.

The visiting teachers, who are employed by regional offices, support students who are severely ill, including pupils with cancer and type 1 diabetes.

The cuts will leave just 32 visiting teachers to service the entire state, down from 117.

Sources within the Department of Education have slammed the move, saying it will unfairly impact vulnerable children and their families.

The job cuts mean classroom teachers will now have to take additional responsibilities of catering to students with disabilities and additional needs.

One visiting teacher said state education had been “slaughtered” due to the cuts.

It’s understood each teacher has about 50 students on their caseload at any one time.

“They work in schools with students and teachers to ensure that our pupils with special needs and disabilities are properly supported,” he said.

“Vision and hearing visiting teachers have been told, ‘you can fight for your jobs as we’re keeping two of you’.”

The Department of Education had previously provided assurance that job losses would not impact school staff. Picture: Jason Edwards

Another Department of Education source said visiting teachers offered “crucial services” to children with disabilities.

“Without visiting teachers, children with disabilities will miss out on important support and there are fears these kids will fall through the cracks,” the source said.

“Mainstream teachers will now take on additional workloads and they will be forced to look after a child with a disability that they’ve potentially never encountered.

“It’s really difficult for the department to expect that mainstream teachers will cope without visiting teachers.”

A mother of a deaf six-year-old child said she was extremely concerned by the job cuts.

“If this service is being axed, how does the Andrews government propose it will provide vital intervention and inclusion support for these more vulnerable children attending Victorian government schools?” she said.

A state secondary school principal said the job cuts would be felt by the whole school community.

“We already have an existing teacher shortage and to lose the support of visiting teachers is disgraceful,” he said.

There are fears kids with disabilities ‘will fall through the cracks’ due to the job cuts. Picture: iStock

Australian Education Union Victorian Branch president Meredith Peace said the union was “deeply concerned” about the impact of the proposed job cuts to some visiting teachers announced by the Department.

“We are disappointed to see that despite assurances to the contrary, the cuts proposed by the Department will have an impact on public school teachers, students and school staff,” Ms Peace said.

“While not being directly employed by schools, the role these Visiting Teachers play in public schools is critical.”

Ms Peace said the affected visiting teachers provided vital, professional and targeted support to teachers, support staff and some of the most vulnerable students.

“Visiting Teachers play a crucial role in working not just with students, but also with their families and other allied health support staff,” she said.

“The Department’s decision to cut these roles will have a direct impact on these students, their learning and wellbeing.

“These cuts are also coming at a time of an unprecedented teacher shortage across the state of Victoria and instead of supporting the workforce, the Andrews government is proposing cutting vital roles.”

A statement from the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf (NAATD), said the importance of trained Teachers of the Deaf (ToD) supporting deaf or hard of hearing students (DHH) could not be underestimated.

“The NAATD calls on the Department of Education to reconsider the cuts to Visiting Teachers, so that DHH students in Victoria receive the educational supports they require.”

Shadow Education Minister Matt Bach said these “unconscionable cuts” to hardworking frontline educational staff would impact some of the most vulnerable Victorian students.

“Victoria’s most vulnerable students should not pay the price for Labor’s economic incompetence,” he said.

A Department of Education spokesman said the state government had significantly increased the assistance for disability inclusion through a $1.6bn investment.

“It includes the deployment of 82 Inclusion Outreach Coaches by 2025 to ensure continued support to teachers and schools working with students with additional needs,: he said.

“The 32 specialised vision and hearing-impaired Visiting Teacher roles will be maintained to support students in these specialised areas of expertise.

“To avoid duplication of services, as part of meeting savings and efficiency targets set in the state budget, the current Visiting Teacher program based in the department’s regional offices will be scaled back, with teachers in those roles supported to take up school-based positions.”