Special education programmes and who delivers services
Special education programmes are stratified according to the level of support an individual student needs to learn:
Special education framework
There are a range of supports, some of which have a fixed investment and some of which vary in value according to need and demand, all of which have to be managed within an overall budget.
For students with the highest level needs
Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) ($136.1 million): supports students with the most significant educational needs arising from extreme or severe difficulty with learning, hearing, vision, mobility, or language. The Ongoing Resourcing Scheme supports students throughout their time at school and the Reviewable Resourcing Scheme supports students for up to four years at a time.
Behaviour Initiative ($33.5 million): behaviour specialists support students whose primary educational need results from severe behaviour challenges.
Support is usually short term and focused on addressing the most serious behaviour challenges and designing strategies that will sustain change.
Communication Initiative (Speech-language therapy) ($9.9 million): specialist support for students whose primary educational need arises from communication difficulties (eg fluency disorder, language delay or articulation difficulties). Support is primarily for students in their first three years of schooling.
School High Health Needs Fund ($6.1 million): support for students whose high health needs mean that they need support to attend school safely.
Residential special schools ($14.2 million): residential schooling for children with special education needs.
For students with moderate needs
Supplementary Learning Support ($13 million): supports students whose needs are just below those of ORRS students and greater than those able to be met by other programmes designed to meet moderate-level needs.
Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour ($68.3 million): RTLBs are specialist teachers who help schools to support students with moderate needs. RTLBs work within a cluster of schools; they design individual programmes, and assist with building school capacity and school confidence in meeting the needs of students with moderate learning and behaviour needs.
Special Education Grant ($34.6 million): is a formula-based funding stream for all schools. Schools use SEG to support students with moderate needs. Enhanced Programme Funding ($7.9 million): this fund recognises that some schools have more students with moderate needs than the SEG formula is capable of supporting. It provides time limited funding to assist schools to develop programmes for these students. Government has recently decided that EPF will become part of funding to support the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan.
Regional health/hospital schools ($10 million (estimate)): there are three regional health/hospital schools for students who are in hospital, convalescing at home or returning to their usual school after illness.
Moderate physical support, hearing and vision support ($14.5 million): provides school-based specialist support (eg physiotherapy, occupational therapy, specialist hearing and vision teaching).
For children in early childhood education
The Ministry of Education and accredited early childhood education providers support students with special education needs in early childhood education settings. The Ministry of Health also provides services. Support from the Ministry of Education is mainly specialist services and teachers’ aide support. The Ministry of Education spends $37.3 million each year on early childhood education services for students with special education needs.
Other initiatives
The Correspondence School ($3.3 million): provides distance learning support for students. Students may be enrolled full-time at the Correspondence School or have dual enrolment with their regular school.
Special Education School Transport Assistance ($24.6 million): on application, the Ministry may provide financial assistance to enable students with special education needs to travel to the nearest school able to meet their needs.
Assistive technology and equipment ($2.5 million): provides technology and equipment to help students access the curriculum. This includes, for example, computers, software and braillers.
Property modifications (around $15 million per year): capital funding is available to assist schools with modifying school property to meet the needs of students with special education needs.
Special education facilitators ($1 million): facilitators work between families, whānau, services and schools to coordinate support and resolve issues.
Service delivery
Special education programmes and services are delivered by:
- Schools: schools, including Māori-medium settings throughout the country, support students with special education needs.
- Special schools: there are 28 special day schools, eight residential special schools and three regional health schools. Many of the special schools support students with a range of impairments, and some support students with particular types of impairments. For example, two special schools are Deaf Education Centres, one is the Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand and there are two behavioural special schools. Special schools tend to be concentrated in urban centres where there is a critical mass of students.
- Specialists: psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language therapists provide specialist support to students, schools and families/whānau. Specialist services are an integral component of a student support and are focused on one-to-one time with students and on working with others to adapt and develop appropriate programmes of support. Most specialists are employed by the Ministry of Education, some are employed by special schools and there are a few private providers.
- Ministry of Education: the Ministry has a dual role in respect of special education. It provides the Government with policy advice and implements Government policy, it also (through regional and district offices) provides services and contracts or employs others to deliver services. It is a significant employer of frontline staff.