The Department of Education is to see that every Government school is to receive Australian-first ‘Disability Inclusion’ packages over the next five years.
According to the Department, with all school regions moving to the new approach by 2025, thousands more students with disability and additional needs are to receive the support they deserved earlier.
The Minister for Education, Natalie Hutchins announced that a $46 million package was to start more support flowing to remaining schools, more than six months earlier than planned.
“Everyone deserves to fully participate in school by bringing forward this funding we are making sure students get the support they need when they need it,” Ms Hutchins said.
“Kids are more than a diagnosis and this package will completely change the way we support children in our schools, focusing on what they can achieve rather than what they can’t.”
She said the Disability Inclusion package was transforming support for students with a disability in every Victorian government school, reforming inclusive education to put the needs of each individual student at the heart of our response and shifting the focus towards what a child can achieve, rather than what they need extra support with.
The Department said more than 850 schools had already moved to the new funding model, with another 720 making the switch in the coming years.
It said schools in Goulbourn, Brimbank, Melton, North-East Melbourne and Southern Melbourne were to receive the additional funding about now and be set to start operating the new model next year.
“Schools in Outer Gippsland, Wimmera South-West, Inner Eastern Melbourne and Hume Merri-bek will receive the funding in early-2024 and move to the new model in 2025,” the Department said.
It said specialist schools would now receive extra preparatory funding while English language schools would begin receiving it for the first time, making sure children who needed extra support, no matter their background, had the opportunity to thrive and shine at school.
“The extra investment builds on the $235 million invested in inclusive education in the Victorian Budget 2023/24, giving more students easier access to the services they need to succeed at school and in life as we continue to build the Education State,” it said.
