Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby

MEDIA RELEASE
4 March 2015
Budget Cuts are Impacting Schools
The Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby today releases the results of
its How is School going this year? survey. This survey was conducted at the
end of the first week of school to better understand the impact of the Tasmanian
Governments education budget cuts announced at the end of 2014. The survey
was open for 1 week and had 131 families take the time to participate,
representing the experiences of 222 children including parents of students
living with disability and the general student population.
Results as detailed below show that budget cuts announced by the Tasmanian
Government last year has had an immediate impact on school support being
offered to all students in 2015. Impacts include larger class sizes, loss of
teaching staff, loss of teacher assistant hours, loss of music and other extra
curricular programs such as life skills programs. These were just the impacts felt
in the first week of school, with many parents indicating that further impacts may
be felt as the year continues.
The Tasmanian Government last year committed to no reduction of support for
students living with disability in our schools when the budget cuts were
announced and yet students living with disability have seen what was inadequate
support cut even further.
The Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby is very concerned about the
drop in support for students living with disability in our schools and we are
concerned that the loss of support for these students will be further reduced as
the year continues.

The Tasmanian Government needs to take the concerns of all parents seriously
Tasmanian childrens education is being negatively impacted by their budget
cuts. It is not scaremongering but reality for many families in our public
schools. Tasmanian children need more investment in their education not less
and the impact of reduced support in schools is unacceptable.
The Government cannot just turn a blind eye to the impacts currently being felt
by all students or blame other political partys/unions for their decisions. These
options simply see students receiving a lower quality of education which we
believe should not be the case when the Government claims that investment in
education is at an all time high.
Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby Founder Kristen Desmond said:
Students living with disability continue to have support reduced year after
year and unfortunately this continues to be the case even with a change of
Government. We acknowledge and appreciate the work that teachers,
teachers aides and school senior staff have done to mitigate the impact of
the Government budget cuts. It is however unacceptable in our view that
any students are losing support at a time when the Government claims
education funding is at an all time high. All Tasmanian students deserve a
quality education and it is the Governments job to ensure that they do.
For further information contact Kristen Desmond on 0448 037 064

Results for Students Living with Disability:

54% of students with disability had changes in their support at the

beginning of the 2015 school year
44% of families said that support for their child had been reduced from last
year. Parents reported that primarily support was reduced by a reduction
in aid time or the school not being able to provide top up funding as it
had done in the past. All parents noted that it was very early in the year
and support in some cases had not yet been finalised.
37% of families felt positive about the school year.

Parents told us the impact of the budget cuts on their school included:
my son has a disability and his aide time has been drastically cut this year he
has aide time in one class rather than having an aide in most classes like he had
last year.
School has verbalised their difficulties, but are still pulling out all the stops to
help our family
My school is no longer offering a social skills program to older students and aide
time has always been a battle.
It would appear that the budget cuts have impacted at least one schools
ability to offer enrolment to a student living with disability which in our
view is discrimination and this an issue that needs to be addressed
immediately by the Tasmanian Government.
When I enquired about my daughter returning to a mainstream public high
school the office lady said due to funding cuts there would not be enough support
to allow her to return on a part time basis. We dismissed the idea of her
returning or enquiring further
It has affected my child as her aide time has dropped dramatically, it is very
scary for familys with special needs children to be put in mainstream schools
without much support, we have paid enough for early interventions for our
daughter throughout the years, now when we need help the most with support in
school we hardly get anything and thats all thanks to cuts from the Government.
Overall Results:

77% of students attended a Public school

75% of students attended a Primary School
62% of the participants had a child living with disability in a Tasmanian
school.

38% of parents reported a positive attitude to the 2015 school year

Parents told us the impact of the budget cuts on their school included:
Larger classes, aide time cut
Loss of teaching staff x 4 (not 4 FTEs). Loss of teacher assistance hours. Now
only 2 TAs where there used to be 4-5. Loss of school Chaplain
Larger class sizes due to budget cuts camp may not run for children at the
school this year as it has done in previous years, music and PE class times have
been cut children who need teacher aides to assist them with learning difficulties
arent getting the support they did in the past which then effects other children in
the classroom, they have distractions and arent learning as the children with
difficulties arent being attended to.
bigger classes and the lack of support for special needs is nothing less than
crazy! It has a huge impact on the rest of the class
less teachers, bigger class sizes, less support
The AP and AST senior staff are on class longer to make up most of the 1.2
FTE shortfall. It takes them away from their core jobs, reducing school wide
support to vulnerable children and families, limiting time with community
stakeholders and cutting back mentoring of other teachers. It is an expensive
way to fund class teachers but the payoff is that we are keeping part time PE,
performing arts and music school wide which provides a range of learning
experiences for children and supports class teachers through off-time class.
Staff and families are making do but it saps the confidence and goodwill of all
involved
Cuts to literacy and numeracy support, loss of an FTE position, and a tight
budget that must include $10,000 for an arborist plan but only has $500 to
replace reading material
details are sketchy, some programs may be cut. For our child who has TA
assistance, Hell receive assistance until the end of term 2 then budget spent
no flying start or music program
literacy support, Music education, Indonesian teaching, IT support sustainability
program class sizes up to 29+
my childrens classes have dramatically increased in size, therefore putting
immense pressure on the school staff. Also having a parent whom works within

the school system, seeing her hours being cut because the school arent allowed
the extra aide help in the budget is appalling.