Media Release: APPA Welcomes Government Support for Students with Disabilities

The Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) today strongly welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister and Minister for School Education of new budget funding of $200 million to provide additional support for students with disabilities.

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APPA President, Norm Hart, said today’s announcement represented a significant investment in Australia’s schools:

“There are more than 160,000 students with disabilities in Australia’s schools. For too long teachers and schools have met the obligation to appropriately educate and accommodate the acute needs of these students without the benefit of additional resources. Today’s announcement is a strong recognition by the Gillard Government that it understands the issues facing Australia’s school communities to meet this requirement.”

Mr Hart said that today’s funding announcement will give individual schools greater ability to better service the special needs of individual students. The funding will enable schools to bring in expertise in areas such as speech therapy to help these students in need; to provide specialised equipment in classrooms to better enable students with disabilities to interact meaningfully with their class mates; and to provide teachers with the specialised assistance they may require to ensure that students with disabilities are not left behind in the classroom.

The Australian Primary Principals’ Association has a long-standing position on the need to better resource the acute learning needs of students with disabilities. Today’s announcement means that all schools across the Catholic, Independent and Government sectors will be able to access this valuable additional funding.

Mr Hart congratulated the Government for this commitment to improved resourcing of schools so that they can better meet this ongoing challenge:

“$200 million is a significant start in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The Government is to be congratulated for listening and acting upon the longstanding calls by principals, teachers and parents for assistance to meet this growing need.”

The Australian Primary Principals’ Association represents 7,200 Government, Catholic and Independent principals across Australia. 3 May 2011 Media contact: Norm Hart – APPA President: 0458 010 949