Education system segregates children with disability, Royal Commission hears
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Education
Accessibility
Government
Royal Commission
Posted 14 hours ago
by Anna Christian
During the Royal Commission's latest hearing Senior Counsel Assisting Kate Eastman has been asking questions of lived and direct experience witnesses. [Source: Disability Royal Commission]
Young people with disability and parents have shared their experiences of segregation in the education system during the 24th public hearing of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
To date the Royal Commission has received 4,677 submissions, of which 21 percent relate to education or learning for children and young people with disability, prompting the Commission to hold another hearing into the issues around education.
The current hearing, titled ‘The experience of children and young people with disability in different education settings’, began yesterday and will run until 10 June.
The first witness was Brittney Wilson, known as Britt, a 22-year-old “aspiring advocate” who spoke of her experiences in mainstream education as a person with disability, as well as her brother James’ education experiences.
Although Britt was part of a mainstream class, she says she still experienced exclusion from her peers and in primary school was particularly restricted [...]