Education Minister Jason Clare says phasing out special schools ‘a complex’ proposal

Education Minister Jason Clare has signalled opposition to scrapping special schools but said ‘a lot more’ could be done to improve the mainstream school sector for disabled children.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: Liam Kidston

Education Minister Jason Clare has signalled his caution to the “complex” proposal to scrap special schools by the middle of the century, saying disabled-only schools have facilities that public schools “couldn’t even dream of having”.

With the issue of schooling dividing the disability royal commissioners in the report handed down last Friday, Mr Clare said he had seen special schools “in action” in his western Sydney electorate and lauded their facilities.

“It shows just how complex an area this is … you’ve got six royal commissioners split down the middle,” Mr Clare told Sky News.

“I know from my own experience, as a local MP in my local electorate, I see special schools in action. I see the sort of facilities and services they have.

“Sometimes it’s the sort of thing the public school next door doesn’t have, or couldn’t even dream of having, like a hydrotherapy pool.”

He conceded there was more to be done in mainstream schools to cater for disabled children. “We need to make sure children get the sort of education they need and there’s a lot we do at the moment in providing that support for students in the mainstream system.

“There’s more that needs to be done there.”

In the final report, commissioners Barbara Bennett, Rhonda Galbally and Alastair McEwin rejected the idea that a separate system should exist, saying segregated education “contributes to devaluing people with disability”.

Chair Ronald Sackville and commissioners John Ryan and Andrea Mason said parents should be given the choice between mainstream and non-­mainstream schools.

The government will provide its response to the 222 recommendations – including implementing a disability rights act and increasing the wages of disabled workers – by March next year.

Greens disability spokesman Jordan Steele-John said the proposal from commissioners Bennett, Galbally and McEwin to phase out special schools over 28 years was not ambitious enough, calling for a sped-up timeframe that would see special schools scrapped by 2030.

“Thirty years is wildly in­adequate,” he told the ABC on Sunday.

“To put that in perspective, that would mean that a disabled child born today would be likely to see their child educated in a separated setting and that is lonely, that is abusive, that is unacceptable.”

Senator Jordan Steele-John. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Senator Steele-John said a call from four of the commissioners for group homes to be phased out within 15 years could also be expedited to a 2030 deadline.

Despite disagreeing on milestone policies, the commissioners all raised concern with “restrictive” practices used on people with disability, including chemical restraints and solitary confinement of disabled youth in detention.

The final report singled out Western Australia for its use of ­solitary confinement in Banksia Hill Detention centre and called on the state government to “immediately cease” such practices.

Social Reinvestment WA principal manager Sophie Stewart said the comments in the commission’s reports were “damning”, with young people locked in cells for 20-plus hours a day in August alone.

“The WA government has been singled out because of a ­decade-long failure of our youth justice system to uphold the basic rights of young people, let alone provide adequate and humane care for children with disabilities.”

A state government spokesman said the Department of Justice had “already undertaken extensive work to address matters raised in the report, with significant progress made in recent months … Staffing levels in youth detention have improved and a new therapeutic model of care … is being implemented”.