AFI, Women with Disabilities ACT (WWDACT) and ACT Down Syndrome & Intellectual Disability (DSID) have made a joint submission to the ACT Public School System Resourcing Review. Our submission argues that inclusive education cannot succeed without structural investment and sustained resourcing to close the gap between policy intent and lived experience.
Inclusive education is fundamental to safety, participation and long-term social and economic outcomes for students with disability. While the ACT Government has committed to inclusion, families, teachers and students are reporting a system under significant strain. Students continue to experience inadequate staffing, inconsistent adjustments, inaccessible environments, informal “reset days” that function as undocumented suspensions, and a growing drift toward segregation through small group programs and specialist settings.
These are system-level resourcing failures, not failures of individual teachers. Schools are being asked to deliver increasingly complex supports without the staffing, specialist capability or administrative infrastructure required to do so. The result is exclusion in practice — including students missing excursions, assemblies and mainstream learning opportunities due to insufficient support.
The ACT Disability Caucus calls for substantial reform to the resourcing model, including:
- A significant increase in disability loading for ACT public schools
- Adequate numbers of trained Learning Support Assistants across all settings
- Dedicated administrative and coordination roles to relieve pressure on teachers
- Investment in physical and digital accessibility and universal design
- Improved access to allied health and specialist supports
- Transparent annual reporting on disability funding, enrolment, exclusion patterns and workforce capacity
- Stronger cross-system coordination between Education, NDIS, Health and Child & Youth Protection
We also emphasise that funding reform must account for intersecting needs, including autistic students, students with intellectual disability, First Nations children, culturally and linguistically diverse families, and students with co-occurring mental health conditions.
The ACT Disability Caucus supports an education system where every child can attend, participate and thrive on an equal basis with their peers. Achieving this requires structural investment, sustained funding and system-wide capability — not reliance on goodwill alone.
You can read the full submission below.