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The recent Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability recommended a phasing out of special schools, but how can atypical students be successfully integrated into mainstream education?
Of the 172 recommendations it has primary or shared responsibility for, the Albanese government, in July, accepted 13 recommendations in full and another 117 in principle.
The Commission recommended phasing out social structures that segregate people living with disabilities, such as special schools, group homes and segregated employment.
The controversial special school phase-out was listed as "noted" by the Commonwealth, which said the states would continue to be responsible for such decisions.
In 2021, the Victorian Department of Education began an initiative that will see a government funded inclusion outreach coach (IOC) in 89 specialist schools in the state by the end of 2025, as part of its Disability Inclusion Reform agenda.
IOCs do not work directly with students, but instead inform school leadership and other school staff with an aim of strengthening inclusive teaching practices. The coaches work one day in a 'base' specialist school, and can take on work in up to three mainstream schools.
Charlotte Peverett is an IOC and the Head of Teaching and Learning at Lake Colac School in southwest Victoria, which caters for a range of students with intellectual disabilities, half of whom have an IQ of 50 to 70, and half, an IQ of less than 50.
She is also an autistic educator, completing her master's through the Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) lab at La Trobe University, with a specific study area of literacy and language intervention. She is passionate about introducing research and evidence-based practices into specialist settings and mainstream schools.
In a recent talk at ed-tech expo and conference EduTech, Ms Peverett said most intellectually disabled students will leave school with a reading ability of a typical Year 3 student.
"And, the employment rate is probably the worst part, they have a variance of 37 per cent to 70 per cent employment, and that is open employment, not supported employment from workshops and other services like the NDIS," she explained.
"The hours range from 20 to 28 hours per week. With the cost of living crisis, can anyone afford to live on 28 hours a week?
"So, that probably sums up the passion that I have for teaching students with intellectual disabilities."
Ms Peverett said inclusive education starts with teachers believing they can successfully teach a diverse range of students.
"I'll often hear comments like, 'You're so good working in special education,' or 'I don't know how to teach students with disabilities, they're too hard, I don't know what to do with them,'" she said.
"So, [there's] a lot around self-belief."
She said in all classes at Colac, teachers drive the whole 45-minute lesson while checking for student's understanding, instead of teachers allocating work to students, who then work through the task in small groups.
Explicit teaching of literacy and reading and "protected" 45-minute phonics sessions Monday to Thursday mornings is the foundation of Colac student's success, Ms Peverett said, which is also the only time students are ability streamed.
"Our model is completely explicit teaching. We assume that students don't know, and if they do know, that's a bonus," she said.
"I've heard some people say that doesn't teach comprehension, but students can't read if they can't read.
"The transition in our schools is incredible because the students know everything's a structured routine, and the teachers know what they're teaching."
After that, teachers target language comprehension through "vocabulary-rich mental texts."
"We choose picture books ... really fantastic language-rich texts, and we unpack it for the students," she said.
"We go through all the language in the book. We explain the language in the book, and that's where your reading comprehension comes from.
"If we don't unpack language, then we're not actually teaching our students. We can't assume that our students know what we are talking about if we're not teaching them."
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Teaching syntax, or writing, spelling and grammar, and semantics, the interpretation of the meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and symbols, follows.
"We can use the sentences in the book to support the knowledge and actually teach the sentences," she said.
"Our English grammar system is: subject, verb, object. We use really simple sentences at the start, and we build them up to be able to join sentences together.
"Then we move up to paragraphing, and then we move up to word genre type writing. That scaffolding is what our students need.
"We can't expect a student to write a whole story if they cannot write a sentence."
Assessment is also purely through spelling and writing, not reading, because some students at Colac are non-verbal.
She also said all schools need high expectations for students in order to see successful classrooms and learning.
The key to teaching atypical students, Ms Peverett said, is repetition.
"We don't give up. Some of our students are on multiple repetitions where they've been exposed to the same thing over 2000 times," Ms Peverett explained.
"Our incremental steps is they might be able to blend three little words from the sounds that they know, but it's not 100 per cent perfect.
"Then we keep going, and we keep going, and we keep going."
She said the most important thing is that the education sector keeps the conversation going when it comes to special education.
"[The research] says a teachers' attitude tends to predict whether students will learn to read or not," she said.
"So, that's pretty problematic if we're not talking about these kids at professional learning, at department events, conferences.
"We know that teachers that are teaching kids with intellectual disabilities, that work in special schools, we [are the ones that] have to shift that framework and understand that we can actually teach students with intellectual disabilities [in mainstream schools] and get them reading."
Where the NDIS review will take special schools
Only three of the six commissioners from the NDIS review – including the two who live with disability – recommended phasing special schools out.
"I still haven't met a parent … who chose a special school," Rhonda Galbally, one of the commissioners with a disability, told the ABC.
"But, I've met parents where the choice has been removed because the mainstream school was absolutely terrible.
"There should be no option for opting out because then we'll see mainstream schools giving up and not becoming inclusive."
She said the vilification of children with a disability by other children would reduce if special schools were abolished and mainstream school students were exposed more to children with disabilities.
Other disability advocates have also said that as long as special schools remain the status quo for students with disabilities, mainstream education will not change to cater for more diverse needs.
"It's going to take a big shift in attitudes and resources," Inclusion Australia chief executive Catherine McAlpine said.
"What we have at the moment is a resourced special school system … and we have a mainstream system that tends to think kids with disabilities belong over there."
The federal government has announced a task force to respond to all 222 of the royal commission's recommendations. A progress report is expected early next year.
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