How things work now
This section reflects on the programmes, services and policy aims that are currently in place. It will provide you with a snapshot of where things are at today. There is more detail on the programmes and expenditure in the appendices.
Approximately $450 million is spent by the Government each year on programmes to support students with special education needs. The range of programmes across both the early childhood education and school sectors is summarised in the diagram below.
Each programme offers different services and support to students and schools, for example:
- specialist teaching, eg in New Zealand Sign Language or Braille
- specialist resource teachers who support classroom teachers and students, eg Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour
- teachers and teachers’ aides working with students who do not learn at the same pace as others and need a lot of repetition eg with many Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes – funded students
- specialists like speech-language therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists or occupational therapists working with students, schools, families and whānau, eg through the Communication Initiative (Speech-language therapy)
- teachers’ aides to help ensure that students are safe and can manage their personal care
- assistive technology and equipment.
Special education framework
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Services and support are provided by regular schools and classroom teachers, special schools, specialists, and others. The Ministry of Education, Special Education is a key planner and provider of services and employs the majority of specialists who work with students with special education needs.
The current arrangements aim to:
- provide good educational opportunities and outcomes for children with special education needs
- ensure clarity, consistency and predictability of resourcing
- have decisions about resources and services and support taken as close to the child as possible
- have schools take ownership of, and accountability for, meeting the full range of student needs
- ensure that resources and services and supports are distributed fairly across students irrespective of where they go to school or where they livexiv.
We will now look at the key areas that sit at the centre of the review.
They are:
- successful schools
- changing the way that schools work together
- improving interagency cooperation and transitions
- allocating and using funding and other resources
- improving the quality of services
- improving accountability.
Each section provides you with information and key questions for your feedback.