Inclusion is over
Last week, my eldest son began high school. He was so excited - he was absolutely fizzing. I volunteered to take him and his friends to school, and they leapt out of the car when we arrived, racing to the school hall before I could even snap a 'first day' picture.
My younger son will never have what my eldest has had throughout his education.
Feel free to skip to the comments if you read this already in your email!
Last week, the Government announced plans to build two new 'specialist' schools. They'll be the first schools built in 50 years that separate disabled children from non-disabled children. That's because we once decided as a society that Aotearoa's disabled children should learn beside non-disabled children, and their right to an education should be sacrosanct.
This follows plans for 'autistic charter schools' run by Autism NZ, which has partnered with the government to separate autistic children from mainstream education.
Already, well-meaning people have told me I must get my son into these schools. That this is a good thing.
It took around eight months last year to get an out-of-zone placement for my son to begin year seven. He was turned down by multiple schools that suddenly didn't have a place for him when they met him and saw his visible disability.
Foolish as I am, I thought when they met him, they'd desperately want him at their school. Yes, he has higher needs than other children, but he's incredibly intelligent, so funny and just an awesome kid. And even if he wasn't, he deserves an education, doesn't he?
When we finally found a school that wanted him in its community, we began the arduous task of seeking Ministry of Education support for him to attend it.
There is no incentive to accept a disabled child at your school if you cannot get funding or support. "I think a special school would be a better fit" will become the norm, especially now that funding is focused on exclusion.
'Parents should be able to choose' is the refrain you hear most on this topic. The idea is that you, as a parent of a disabled child, have a choice.
That choice is:
- A purpose-built 'specialist' school where your disabled child is kept away from non-disabled children.
- A mainstream school without funding or support for your child.
What would you pick? Is that really a choice?
As disability advocate Nick Ruane noted in his post about this illusion of choice:
"In meetings on Inclusive Education, the current Minister stressed ‘Parental choice’ as being the most important thing to her personally...The Right to Inclusive Education has not been supported by this Minister."
"If we are really serious about giving our parents the Dignity of Choice that Stanford says she cares so deeply about, then what Stanford and Willis would have come out and announced yesterday is that they both are going to invest seriously into Learning Support in Budget 2026 to make our Public Schools an actual choice for every parent of a disabled child."
So, let's ask the question: Is this a choice?
For what it's worth, I think as the parent of a disabled child you should be able to choose between a well-funded mainstream school, home-school with proper funding support, and a specialist school.
Currently, we don't have that.
More than a third of funding applications for disabled children are denied. How does a disabled child who needs support get an education like non-disabled children without funding?
The number of students accepted for ORS funding has been slowly decreasing over the last four years, despite educators saying the need is growing.
Last year, teacher aide hours allocated to severely disabled children were cut to 'standardise' Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding.
In this country, no matter how high a child's needs are, they receive a maximum of 13 hours of High ORS funding and 20 hours of Very High ORS funding. Without teacher aid funding, children are stood down or asked not to come into school.
Home-schooled children do not receive their teacher aide funding at home, even if it's approved for school.
Autistic children in Aotearoa are almost three times more likely to be stood down or suspended from school than non-autistic children. But research shows that autistic students who do receive ongoing high-needs funding are no more likely to be stood down or suspended than their peers.
So, can we really choose to send our children to mainstream schools? Can they attend with their siblings? Do they have the same learning opportunities as neurotypical and non-disabled children? Can they be part of society? Do they have the same right to go to the local school that any other child has?
Obviously, as a family, we will quit our jobs, slide into poverty, split up our family and move to separate regions to support our son being able to have an education. It's our only 'choice'.
Do you think it's a choice?
Each day, it feels like there are new attacks on families of disabled children. To add insult to injury, we are blamed by this government for their choices to single out our children.
We have been classed as thieves who steal our children's meagre funding to get manicures and take overseas holidays. And last week, Erica Stanford said it's us - those who fought for and supported inclusive education - who are the reason why we don't have it.
She stated it is adults who have argued over inclusion versus specialist school who have caused children to 'miss out'. And she declared the argument about inclusion in education as being 'over'.
So, there it is.
Parents and carers need to shut up. Stanford has decided for us. And that's that.
No parents were consulted, but when are we ever?
Stanford and Nicola Willis just can't help but kick us when we're down. They'll never have to move cities for their child to attend a school that separates them from their siblings and non-disabled friends. They'll never have to split up their family and try to fund two households so their disabled children can be hidden away. They'll never have to raise their disabled children separately from their non-disabled children.
They'll never have to worry about their non-speaking child facing abuse because they've been separated from their parents and carers, as their only choice is a specialist school in Manawatū. (In 2024, a report on abuse in state care in Aotearoa talked about the impacts of segregating disabled people. The ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to institutionalisation increases the risk of harm).
I don't know how to end this post. I'm tired of writing about how this government keeps kicking parents and carers of disabled children when they're down. I'm tired of them wanting to remove our children from mainstream life.
I'm tired of the inevitable backlash I'll get from parents with children in specialist schools, as if parents who just want their child to be able to go to school are the problem. I want your child's school to be funded and I want my child's school to be funded. Can't we want success for each other?
I'm tired of parents of disabled children thinking only of their own children and ignoring the reality for all other disabled children. This government has made everyone think there's just one pie and every starving parent has to grab at it and fight and scream and attack each other because 'I need more pie because my child has gone without pie for longer than your child' or 'my child is hungrier than yours, they need more pie!'.
We can't we ask: Why is there only one pie that only some can access – when, as a country, we can afford so many more pies?
This government wants us to fight over one sad pie while our kids struggle. And they want us to feel broken and beaten up. And they want us to blame each other. And they want the general public to blame us.
Because a broken, beaten, blamed and shamed parent will not fight back.
And you know what? I'm exhausted, so I guess they're right.
Maybe inclusion really is over.