children with DS in NSW going to public school an diagnosed with mild disability

The Down's Syndrome Association NSW has the intention to write to the Department of Education to get children with DS diagnosed as having a mild development delay included in the Funding Support Program. To get a clear picture about the current situation, a questionaire is developed. When your child is enrolled in a public school or will go to a public school in 2010, please complete the questions below and send them to the following e-mail adres from the Down's Syndrome Association NSW:

Info@dsansw.org.au

Your cooperation is highly appreciated.

Parent information about children with Down syndrome, currently enrolled in NSW public schools, or enrolling in 2010, and assessed as having a mild intellectual
disability by the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET).

Please just insert your replies immediately after each question.

1. Age of child with Down syndrome:

2. Current year at public school

3. your child has been assessed by the Department of Education and Training as having a mild intellectual disability. What tests/procedures were used to arrive at the outcome?

4. Has he/she been re-assessed, if so after what time interval, and was the result the same?

5. Is your child enrolled in amainstream class, or if over 8 years, in an IM (support) class?

6. Did you take any actions to tryto influence the outcome of the DET’s assessment in the hope of an assessment of a “moderate intellectual disability”

7. Through the DET’s assessment process, has your child been identified as having any other additional need for support at school (e.g. for hearing impairment; language delay)? Please indicate the needs identified.

8. Did the additional needs identified result in a Disability Confirmation document being issued, allowing you to apply for Funding Support?

9. Have you applied for other funding within DET to get additional support for your child (eg. “special consideration funding”), and was the application successful? How often are you required to reapply?

10. In what areas do you think your child need additional support at school (if different from the DET assessment)?

11. How is this need for additional support at school currently met? Or if your child is not yet enrolled at school, how do you expect it to be met?

12. Are you aware of the Learning Assistance Program or the School Learning Support Coordination Program? To your knowledge, is your child supported through either the Learning Assistance Program or the School Learning Support Coordination Program at school?

13. What are the current consequences of any unmet need for support -
a.for your child
b.for your family

14. If support is currently insufficient, what kind of support do you think is needed for your child to be appropriately supported at school?

Thanks for posting this, is there any talk of what other states are doing? I'm in QLD, Aden is 2 years away from school so I dotn knwo how it works.

Talitha has been diagnosed with a mild disability even though she came in very low on all the tests and totally refused to speak at all. But she won't go to school before 2011 as she is only 3, turning 4 in November. I may not start her at school until 2012 depending on how she is going and whether she will get funded support at school. Even in a couple of years I can't see how she could go to school without support. I think they should re-think their assessments because although she tests at very low she comes in at the bottom end of mild. She only answered a couple of the questions correctly and didn't use sign or verbal communication in the test yet they still categorise her as mild - go figure.

Ciara is starting school next year but she has been diagnosed as Moderately-severely delayed so I can't answer

Good question: I am not sure what other states are doing, but will look into that. I have heard that other states are doing it better, but that is easy done, compared with the poor situation in NSW.

When Talitha is going to school in a few years time, the possibility of re-testing is there (every 2 years). The other option is not to give pemission to pass the test results on to the Department of Education and get her re-tested somewhere else.

But lets hope the approach to DET works and children with DS and a mild development delay will be included in the Funding Support Program. Most parents are known with the DSA, but we would like to reach them all. Thanks for your responses so far.