Wednesday, 26 August 2026

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (19:19): (1806) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to undertake an implementation review in the north-eastern Melbourne region of the rollout of our important disability inclusion reforms. I raise this adjournment matter specifically on behalf of Joanne Currao at Reservoir High School, on behalf of AEU delegates at that school and on behalf of James Cumming, Linda Lavelle, Nikol Faris and all of the team at Reservoir East Primary School. We are lucky to have a lot of great inclusive schools in our area, but the REPS team are particularly thoughtful and particularly experienced in this area, and I know that they are absolutely committed to all of their students, including students with disability. On their collective behalf I ask the minister to review three particular aspects of the disability inclusion profile (DIP) process.

The first is the administrative burden of that process. We have heard from school staff about the significant amount of admin that is required, often 30 or 40 hours across the school staff, across parents and across the allied health professionals involved, and there is a question about whether there may be ways to streamline or codify some of those evidence requirements. Secondly, we have heard about the transparency and the consistency of the assessment and moderation processes and just whether the final determinations really are resulting in outcomes that are clearly and consistently aligned with students’ demonstrated adjustment needs. Understandably, it can be frustrating if people feel that they are getting inconsistent or opaque assessment procedures, and it sort of feeds into that first point insofar as it adds to the workload if you cannot tell ahead of time whether you should invest in a particular DIP application or not.

Then finally, we would like to look, if possible, at whether the overall levels of funding are sufficient for inclusive education and the reasonable adjustments that have to be made for students with disability. I particularly ask that because we know that the workload associated with inclusive education does not fall evenly on all of our schools. In fact in a school like REPS they probably have a resource requirement that is four or five times higher than some of the other schools in our area. I do wonder if there may not at some stage almost need to be a tier 2½ that recognises the cumulative effect on those schools that are having to commit additional workload and additional resources to disability inclusion.

As we know, we as a government, and the minister, are absolutely committed to students with disability. We are committed to these reforms. They are important reforms that are making the system a lot better than the previous program for students with disability. But we know that in being committed to the reforms and committed to those students, we need to be committed to the school staff who are helping them day to day and supporting them in their learning objectives. My final ask is that, if the minister is able to set up an implementation review or a further review of the DI rollout, perhaps some of the fantastic staff that I have mentioned tonight could be involved and provide their input. I thank her for her consideration.