Now is the time to transform education systems."
~ Antonio Guterres, United Nation Secretary General, 19 September 2022
An open letter to Education Minister, Grace Grace
Dear Grace Grace MP,
In 2018 many Queensland hearts were filled with hope and joy. The Queensland Department of Education had announced a new inclusive education policy. It was world-leading, award winning and aligned with the UN’s Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities’ Article 24 General Comment no. 4 ‘The right to an inclusive education’.
In 2018 many Queensland families headed off to their local, regular school with new confidence. Their child with disability would be welcomed and included in regular classes, learning their age-appropriate curriculum alongside their non-disabled peers (as was stated in the policy).
These families started to dare to envision an included future for their child with disability. Their child could finally attend their local school with their siblings and neighbourhood friends! They found comfort in the hope that their child would be well known and valued by those in their local community. They even dared to start dreaming that it was possible that their child could have an adult life filled with the good things in life that many take for granted (yet historically people with disability have been denied) … a job in open employment, their own home and to be surrounded by good friends.
These parents were not naïve. They knew there would be bumps in the road as school staff and local communities learnt how to include and best support their child. What they did expect was to see a commitment to change and to finding inclusive solutions. These parents were ready to learn and work in partnership with school staff and their local communities as together they brought the policy to life.
However, four years later, 2022… many of these families have fallen exhausted and heartbroken. Many with broken children and broken dreams. Many now home-school or have returned to a special school. Their child’s future now looks very uncertain. They know they will have to go to extreme efforts to ensure they find ways to keep their child connected to the everyday world and to their local community.
For most of these families, their efforts to see their child included at their local school were not met with open arms & minds. Instead, most were met by significant resistance to change or by educators who dearly wanted to include their child but just didn’t have the training, support or resources necessary to do so.
Despite a world-leading inclusive education policy many families have and continue to find Queensland schools unwilling to enrol their children, Queensland schools that ‘manage’ their children out through reduced hours, suspensions or cancellations of enrolment. Many children continue to be denied the reasonable adjustments they require and are expected to ‘keep up’. When their child’s distress from the lack of the right support becomes too great they are often suspended or face expulsion. Micro-exclusion remains an all too common occurrence, i.e. students are not supported to access school activities on the same basis as their peers, such as camps, sports days, swimming carnivals, and extra-curricular activities offered at or after school.
Parents who question why the policy isn’t being followed are frequently met with the response, “inclusive education is a journey” or “we all have a different idea of what inclusion looks like” (yet inclusion is clearly defined in General Comment no. 4). When parents ask, “when will my child move out of SEP classes and into the regular classes?”, “when will my child’s hours a day at school be increased?”, “when will adequate supports be provided?”, they are met with blank looks and shrugs of shoulders. The celebrated Inclusive Education policy simply hasn’t been given the support, leadership or follow through that is required. There is no concrete ‘destination’ that this ‘journey’ is working towards.
Four years since the inclusive education policy was introduced, experiences of true inclusion remain extremely rare. Queensland schools that have leadership teams who understand and value true inclusion can be counted on one hand. Few Queensland schools have undertaken professional development of their staff in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is stated in General Comment no. 4. as being key to inclusive education. Our state education minister continues to invest significantly in segregated settings for students with disabilities. By now inclusive schools with knowledgeable leadership teams, with staff that embrace inclusion and UDL should be the norm in Queensland, not the exception. Sadly, those few students who are experiencing something close to true inclusion are usually only doing so because they have been fortunate enough to find a class teacher who is determined to self-educate themselves on inclusive practices despite limited support and access to resources.
It is not just students with disabilities getting a raw deal regarding education. The woes of our education systems are reported daily by the Australian media. Both the Queensland and Australian education systems more broadly continue to follow a model designed hundreds of years ago. It is not serving any teacher or student well. Australia has one of the most highly segregated education systems in the world. So many students are feeling excluded and stressed. Minority groups are struggling in our schools, indigenous students, refugee & migrant students, students in out-of-home care, gifted and talented students, and LGBTQIA+ students. It is rare to find a student, teacher or family who are loving the school experience and who feel accepted or valued for who they are.
If we want stronger, healthier and happier communities we must build an education system that is inclusive and supportive of all. If we truly want the best for all Queensland children, we must come together and demand change for the better. Inclusive education is the necessary transformation that our education system is crying out for and will bring about a transformation that will benefit all students, teachers and the broader community.
Is it so hard to imagine what these parents imagine (what New Brunswick in Canada, and Italy and Portugal are leading the way in)? One well-resourced inclusive education system would enable us to provide smaller class sizes (which would be the case if special and mainstream staff came together), where there would be enough resources for the support needs of all students to be met, where teacher shortages would be no longer, where including all students is the responsibility of all school staff, where children with and without disability grow up together, learn together, where all in the community learn to value and respect diversity, where teachers become expert teachers of all, where excellence in education is expected for all, and where student, teacher and community well-being are the number one priority.
Grace Grace the inclusion policy is now hanging on by a thread. What do you want your legacy to be? Will you be remembered as the education minister who doomed tens of thousands of Queensland children with disability to a lifetime of poor emotional health, to poor educational outcomes, to poor work prospects, to a life of isolation and dependence on services? When the world’s eyes are upon Brisbane during the Paralympics in 2032 will they see Queensland as a State that truly includes all students at their local regular schools or will they see a State that follows a medical model of disability, a State that continues to segregate children with disability and that offers an outdated, poor model of education to all?
Or… will you be the education minister who finally saw the error in her ways. Saw the heartache and the true negative impacts of continuing to invest in segregation? Who refocused her attention on the inclusive education policy and committed to seeing the human right to inclusive education for children with disability met? Will you be the education minister who saw it as her job to lead Queensland to a great and positive societal transformation that brought about immense benefits to all?
My plea to you Grace Grace is to be courageous, finally, step up and lead! Ensure that Queensland’s inclusive education policy is fully realised, properly implemented and supported for all Queensland children. The well-being of Queensland children is in your hands.
Yours sincerely,
A concerned parent of two Queensland children with disability and a former teacher.
If this piece of writing has resonated with you, be you a parent of a child with disability, a child who is marginalised, an educator, a concerned community member or someone who simply believes that all children should be welcomed and valued at their local regular school and receive a quality education then please join QCIE at our rally for inclusive education NOW!
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” ~ Helen Keller
Dear Grace Grace MP,
In 2018 many Queensland hearts were filled with hope and joy. The Queensland Department of Education had announced a new inclusive education policy. It was world-leading, award winning and aligned with the UN’s Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities’ Article 24 General Comment no. 4 ‘The right to an inclusive education’.
In 2018 many Queensland families headed off to their local, regular school with new confidence. Their child with disability would be welcomed and included in regular classes, learning their age-appropriate curriculum alongside their non-disabled peers (as was stated in the policy).
These families started to dare to envision an included future for their child with disability. Their child could finally attend their local school with their siblings and neighbourhood friends! They found comfort in the hope that their child would be well known and valued by those in their local community. They even dared to start dreaming that it was possible that their child could have an adult life filled with the good things in life that many take for granted (yet historically people with disability have been denied) … a job in open employment, their own home and to be surrounded by good friends.
These parents were not naïve. They knew there would be bumps in the road as school staff and local communities learnt how to include and best support their child. What they did expect was to see a commitment to change and to finding inclusive solutions. These parents were ready to learn and work in partnership with school staff and their local communities as together they brought the policy to life.
However, four years later, 2022… many of these families have fallen exhausted and heartbroken. Many with broken children and broken dreams. Many now home-school or have returned to a special school. Their child’s future now looks very uncertain. They know they will have to go to extreme efforts to ensure they find ways to keep their child connected to the everyday world and to their local community.
For most of these families, their efforts to see their child included at their local school were not met with open arms & minds. Instead, most were met by significant resistance to change or by educators who dearly wanted to include their child but just didn’t have the training, support or resources necessary to do so.
Despite a world-leading inclusive education policy many families have and continue to find Queensland schools unwilling to enrol their children, Queensland schools that ‘manage’ their children out through reduced hours, suspensions or cancellations of enrolment. Many children continue to be denied the reasonable adjustments they require and are expected to ‘keep up’. When their child’s distress from the lack of the right support becomes too great they are often suspended or face expulsion. Micro-exclusion remains an all too common occurrence, i.e. students are not supported to access school activities on the same basis as their peers, such as camps, sports days, swimming carnivals, and extra-curricular activities offered at or after school.
Parents who question why the policy isn’t being followed are frequently met with the response, “inclusive education is a journey” or “we all have a different idea of what inclusion looks like” (yet inclusion is clearly defined in General Comment no. 4). When parents ask, “when will my child move out of SEP classes and into the regular classes?”, “when will my child’s hours a day at school be increased?”, “when will adequate supports be provided?”, they are met with blank looks and shrugs of shoulders. The celebrated Inclusive Education policy simply hasn’t been given the support, leadership or follow through that is required. There is no concrete ‘destination’ that this ‘journey’ is working towards.
Four years since the inclusive education policy was introduced, experiences of true inclusion remain extremely rare. Queensland schools that have leadership teams who understand and value true inclusion can be counted on one hand. Few Queensland schools have undertaken professional development of their staff in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is stated in General Comment no. 4. as being key to inclusive education. Our state education minister continues to invest significantly in segregated settings for students with disabilities. By now inclusive schools with knowledgeable leadership teams, with staff that embrace inclusion and UDL should be the norm in Queensland, not the exception. Sadly, those few students who are experiencing something close to true inclusion are usually only doing so because they have been fortunate enough to find a class teacher who is determined to self-educate themselves on inclusive practices despite limited support and access to resources.
It is not just students with disabilities getting a raw deal regarding education. The woes of our education systems are reported daily by the Australian media. Both the Queensland and Australian education systems more broadly continue to follow a model designed hundreds of years ago. It is not serving any teacher or student well. Australia has one of the most highly segregated education systems in the world. So many students are feeling excluded and stressed. Minority groups are struggling in our schools, indigenous students, refugee & migrant students, students in out-of-home care, gifted and talented students, and LGBTQIA+ students. It is rare to find a student, teacher or family who are loving the school experience and who feel accepted or valued for who they are.
If we want stronger, healthier and happier communities we must build an education system that is inclusive and supportive of all. If we truly want the best for all Queensland children, we must come together and demand change for the better. Inclusive education is the necessary transformation that our education system is crying out for and will bring about a transformation that will benefit all students, teachers and the broader community.
Is it so hard to imagine what these parents imagine (what New Brunswick in Canada, and Italy and Portugal are leading the way in)? One well-resourced inclusive education system would enable us to provide smaller class sizes (which would be the case if special and mainstream staff came together), where there would be enough resources for the support needs of all students to be met, where teacher shortages would be no longer, where including all students is the responsibility of all school staff, where children with and without disability grow up together, learn together, where all in the community learn to value and respect diversity, where teachers become expert teachers of all, where excellence in education is expected for all, and where student, teacher and community well-being are the number one priority.
Grace Grace the inclusion policy is now hanging on by a thread. What do you want your legacy to be? Will you be remembered as the education minister who doomed tens of thousands of Queensland children with disability to a lifetime of poor emotional health, to poor educational outcomes, to poor work prospects, to a life of isolation and dependence on services? When the world’s eyes are upon Brisbane during the Paralympics in 2032 will they see Queensland as a State that truly includes all students at their local regular schools or will they see a State that follows a medical model of disability, a State that continues to segregate children with disability and that offers an outdated, poor model of education to all?
Or… will you be the education minister who finally saw the error in her ways. Saw the heartache and the true negative impacts of continuing to invest in segregation? Who refocused her attention on the inclusive education policy and committed to seeing the human right to inclusive education for children with disability met? Will you be the education minister who saw it as her job to lead Queensland to a great and positive societal transformation that brought about immense benefits to all?
My plea to you Grace Grace is to be courageous, finally, step up and lead! Ensure that Queensland’s inclusive education policy is fully realised, properly implemented and supported for all Queensland children. The well-being of Queensland children is in your hands.
Yours sincerely,
A concerned parent of two Queensland children with disability and a former teacher.
If this piece of writing has resonated with you, be you a parent of a child with disability, a child who is marginalised, an educator, a concerned community member or someone who simply believes that all children should be welcomed and valued at their local regular school and receive a quality education then please join QCIE at our rally for inclusive education NOW!
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” ~ Helen Keller
Join the rally
WHEN: Wednesday, 26 October 2022, 12pm - 1:30pm
WHERE: Rally outside Parliament House with a march to Queens’ Garden via Education House (Mary Street).
FIND OUT MORE: QCIE Website | QCIE Facebook | QCIE Facebook event (click 'going' or 'interested' to let us know if you are joining).
WHERE: Rally outside Parliament House with a march to Queens’ Garden via Education House (Mary Street).
FIND OUT MORE: QCIE Website | QCIE Facebook | QCIE Facebook event (click 'going' or 'interested' to let us know if you are joining).