Systemic educational neglect and its destructive outcomes were laid bare recently at the disability royal commission, examining violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation of persons with disabilities.
The commission received submissions and heard compelling oral testimony from young people and their families at Public Hearing, focused on “barriers to accessing a safe, quality and inclusive school education and life course impacts.
These testimonies painted a sobering picture of how the education system continues to fail many persons with disabilities in Australia.
Witnesses described the restrictions that schools place on the attendance and learning of students with disabilities, despite these being inconsistent with Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and Disability Standards for Education 2005, and resulting in clear educational neglect.
The expert witnesses collectively outlined that the systemic educational neglect of young people with disabilities has been documented within national and state government reviews of schooling over the past five decades and continues to this day in Australia.
