Let's Talk Newsletter July 2007

Let's Talk Special Education July 2007

Tēnā koutou katoa

In this issue of Let's Talk we have produced what we hope is a useful ready reference you can use to enhance your understanding of how the special education system works.

Early childhood education services and schools work to support children and young people with special education needs. Depending on the needs of the child or young person there are a number of education specialists who can help.

Information on the following pages gives an overview to who provides special education services and where to go to find more information about special education.

The Ministry of Education uses the term "special education" to refer to children and young people who may require extra help to remove the barriers to learning if they have a physical, intellectual, hearing, vision, emotional or behavioural difficulty. These students may require this extra help to learn, communicate, or get along with others.

Special education services provide children and young people who need extra help with specialist teaching, learning and behaviour programmes, therapists to help with mobility, or speech and language, special equipment to help students learn, and advice for teachers, other professionals, and families. More detail about these services and the way they fit together can be found on the following pages.

Resourcing attracts significant attention within the sector. In August to November this year a survey of special education resourcing will be carried out in selected schools. The purpose of the survey is to look at the special education resources going into schools and their use of the resources. The information gleaned from the survey will provide a useful benchmark that will assist policy advice and its implementation. If you have any questions about the survey email Brett Lineham at the Ministry of Education, brett.lineham@minedu.govt.nz

Supporting children and young people to be present in early childhood services and schools, to be participating as fully as possible and learning and achieving, is the purpose of all extra special education help. We are now in a position to begin to collect better data on the outcomes for all students. For instance, last year, 14% of students on ORRS funding received some NCEA credits. The ministry is putting high priority on student engagement and on increasing the achievement of all students. We all have roles to play in this and the more that we can work together the better the outcomes for children and young people will be.

In closing I would like to let you all know that this month, after five years, I am leaving my position at the Ministry of Education. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time managing special education and I leave with a positive sense of achievement, and a deep respect for the work of so many others who work in the sector.

Naku noa, na

Barbara Disley
Deputy Secretary
Special Education
Ministry of Education

This image is also available for download at the bottom of this page.

Who provides special education services?

In early childhood

Early childhood education service staff (with parental permission), and parents themselves, can contact the Ministry of Education, Special Education (GSE) if they think a child in their care may have special education needs. GSE and a number of other education-funded specialist service organisations provide a range of special education services from birth to six years of age. If you ring your nearest GSE office they will give you information about service options in your area.

At school

At school, children who have moderate to high special education needs have the majority of their services provided by specialist teachers called Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), employed by schools (usually by a cluster of schools).

GSE specialists provide extra help for children and young people with high special education needs, their families and teachers in most regular schools. School staff should ring their nearest GSE office (see over) if they have a student they think may qualify for extra special education assistance. There are also some regular schools as well as special schools who employ specialists and teachers to support groups of students with high needs. For more information about special schools, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/specialschools.

High needs at school

The Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS)

This funding is for students with high special education needs who meet certain criteria. This funding provides for teacher aide and specialist support. Students also receive additional teacher time. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/orrs

The Severe Behaviour Initiative

This initiative provides advice and specialist support for students with the most severe behaviour difficulties, their schools and families. Support is provided by GSE behaviour teams. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/severebehaviour

School High Health Needs Fund

This fund provides teacher aide time for students with high health needs so that they can safely participate at school. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/highhealth

Speech-language Initiative

This initiative is for students with high communication needs who are not in ORRS. Support will be provided by specialists, usually speech-language therapists, and in some situations communication support workers. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/speechlanguage

Moderate to high needs at school

Supplementary Learning Support

This initiative is to support students with ongoing and significant learning needs who are not eligible for ORRS. Host schools for learning support teachers are responsible for local management of rolls and will call for nominations from RTLB and GSE specialist staff should a vacancy arise on the roll. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/SLS

Regional Hospital/Health Schools

These schools are based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. They have responsibility for managing a teaching service for students with health needs who are at home or in hospital. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/healthschools

Hearing support

Advisors on Deaf Children and Resource Teachers of the Deaf provide an itinerant service to students with moderate hearing impairments. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/hearingimpaired

Vision support

Specialist teachers called Resource Teachers: Vision provide an itinerant service to students with moderate vision impairments. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/visionimpaired

Physical support

The Ministry of Education provides or delegates a range of service providers throughout New Zealand to provide physiotherapy and occupational therapy for students with physical disabilities who do not meet the ORRS criteria. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/moderatephysical

Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB)

RTLB provide itinerant support to Year 0-10 students and their teachers in order to improve outcomes for students with learning and behaviour difficulties. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/RTLB

Enhanced Programme Fund

Schools with a disproportionate number of students with moderate special education difficulties may be eligible for a supplementary grant called the Enhanced Programme Fund (EPF). The EPF helps eligible schools enhance, refine and/or further develop effective special education programmes. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/EPF

Special Education Grant (SEG)

The SEG is a grant to all schools to support students with moderate levels of difficulty. The grant is often used to provide staff training, extra teacher aide hours, programmes, equipment or curriculum materials. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/SEgrant. Details about the different types of special education support

Additional support for students receiving special education assistance

Assistive Technology and Equipment

Students in all New Zealand schools are eligible to be considered for assistive equipment funding if they are supported through one of the special education initiatives. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/assistivetechnology

Transport Assistance

A subsidy or allowance for travel between home and school (by public transport, private conveyance, or taxi or bus) may be paid for students with high needs who need transport assistance for mobility or safety reasons. In many cases, transport assistance applications result from a student's assessment by special education professionals. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/SEtransport

The Correspondence School

Young children with special education needs can access The Correspondence School when other early childhood education isn't available. GSE can refer students for full-time enrolment at The Correspondence School when the student is unable to go to school for a period of time. Schools can also refer for dual enrolment when there is a specific curriculum need that the school or resource teachers can't meet. For more information, go to www.correspondence.school.nz

Property Modifications

Alterations or additions to school property are funded to enable access for children and young people with special access needs. This could include ramps, rails and specialised bathrooms. A school works with the Ministry of Education's property division to make the appropriate changes. Parents and caregivers should talk to their local school principal to discuss their child's needs. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/propertymodifications

Special Education Facilitators

Special Education Facilitators work to help resolve difficulties that occur between families of children with special education needs and schools. Facilitators can be contacted through local offices. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/SEfacilitators

Early Intervention

There are qualified, experienced staff who work with young children with special education needs through to the time they start school. These people work in early childhood education settings or in the child's home. They provide assessment services, general information, knowledge sharing and support to families, educators and other professionals. They also provide specialist services such as speech-language therapy and specialist teaching. For more information, go to www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/earlychildhood

Contact details for GSE district offices

If you want to talk to someone about a child or young person, please ring the office nearest you.

Your comments are very welcome.