Decision to cut High Health Needs funding

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION ACTION GROUP

The Inclusive Education Action Group (IEAG) has spoken out against the Ministry of Education's decision to cut the High Health Needs funding needed to support the education of a disabled student at Dalefield Primary School in rural Carterton, as reported in the Dominion Post on 6 July. The funding provided Dalefield with teacher aide support needed to support ten-year-old Wiki Tamihana's learning. The school was now looking for alternative funding within its community to ensure that Wiki remained at school.

IEAG spokesperson, Ian Armstrong, said it was inconceivable that the Ministry should punish a school that is working hard to include and teach all children. In finding ways to support the learning of children and young people with disabilities within their own community and local school, Dalefield Primary School was doing exactly what the research says is best practice. "The Ministry of Education should be holding schools like this in high regard, not putting barriers in their way. These schools are the leaders in education, and they should be supported by the Ministry to continue their good work". It was "unbelievable", he said, that the systems this school had developed to support Wiki's learning had been dismantled, and that the school must now spend valuable time seeking new sources of funding.

IEAG was aware that other regular schools throughout New Zealand were also looking for support that allowed them to include disabled students. In some cases parents were even paying for teacher aides themselves. Given that the majority of students with disabilities are in regular schools, IEAG felt it was time the Ministry of Education took a leadership position and supported these schools to be inclusive by providing realistic funding regimes and good professional development opportunities.

Dalefield's experience comes hard on the heels of Education Minister Anne Tolley's promise of a review of special education. "From IEAG's perspective, it will be imperative for this review to address the day-to-day experiences and concerns of regular schools that want to be inclusive but are struggling with a lack of support and resourcing from the Ministry" he said.

ENDS