How special education works at school

Support available through the school includes:

• special education grant that goes to all schools and can be used to provide resources, additional teacher time, professional development for teachers and specialists, such as physiotherapists or occupational therapists
• specially trained teachers who may work with your child if they have moderate learning and/or behaviour difficulties, for example, Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLBs) and Learning Support Teachers (LSTs)
• specially trained teachers who may work with your child if they have a vision impairment that affects their ability to learn (called Resource Teachers: Vision)
• teachers who may work with your child if they are deaf or have a hearing impairment that affects their ability to learn (called Resource Teachers: Deaf).

Support services for children with high needs:

If your child is recognised as having high needs, school staff will organise and coordinate extra services from Special Education or another agency that receives Government funding for this purpose.

In this case, your child’s Early Intervention key worker will be working with you and the school to organise the most suitable support for your child.

This support may include:

• Communication or Speech-Language service: provides support if your child has high communication needs
• Severe Behaviour Service: provides advice and support for your child, the school and your family if your child has severe behaviour difficulties
• Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS): provides extra teaching, specialist programmes, therapy and education support if your child has high or very high needs and meets certain criteria
• School High Health Needs Fund (SHHNF): provides a teacher's aide for your child's teacher so that your child can attend school safely if they meet certain criteria.
• Physical Disabilities Service: Physiotherapist and occupational therapists provide help if your child has a physical disability. 
• Regional Health Schools: can arrange services for your child if they can't attend school because of ill health. These services can be provided either at home, in hospital or as your child is going back to school.

As a parent, you'll be asked to provide information about your child when their Early Intervention key worker, or school staff, are applying for support, such as ORRS or high health services.

back to top

These extra services will be provided by people such as:

• Speech-language therapists: can help your child if they have high speech and language needs. They can support your family and the teachers and provide programmes to meet your child’s needs. Their help comes through the communication services.
• Occupational therapists and physiotherapists: Can help your child if they have a physical disability. They're are also able to provide advice to your child’s teachers and your family. This help is usually part of ORRS support.
• Psychologists: can provide appropriate psychological and educational assessments and can help work out what may be contributing to your child’s difficulty. They can help you and your child’s teachers develop strategies to improve social and emotional skills, which will improve their learning. This is usually part of Behaviour or ORRS support.
• Special education advisors: can help if your child has behavioural or learning needs. These advisors will work with your child’s teachers to help them adapt their programmes and with your family and may sometimes work directly with your child. This is usually part of ORRS support.
• Advisers on deaf children: can work with you and your child who is deaf or hearing impaired. They can provide information about hearing devices, communication and language options, including New Zealand Sign Language. They may work with your child’s school and advise their teacher on learning programmes and equipment.
• Teachers’ aides: can support your child, helping them with their learning programme under the direction of classroom teachers. Teachers’ aides are usually employed as part of your child’s ORRS or Behaviour support or they may be employed to help with your child’s high health needs.
• Support workers: can provide one-on-one support under the direction of therapists, psychologists or advisors. Support workers are usually employed as part of your child’s Communication or Behaviour needs support.

In some situations the following additional support may be available:

• a subsidy or allowance for transport assistance so your child can travel between home and the nearest school
• a wide range of resources and equipment, such as computers or other technology, to help your child learn.

The school can also use support and funding from the Ministry of Education’s Property Group to adapt school buildings to cater for physical needs. They will contact a Special Education occupational therapist and/or physiotherapist to help plan what changes are needed so that everything will be ready by the time your child starts school. You'll need to work closely with them.