- Hon Erica Stanford
The Government has settled an historic Human Rights Review Tribunal claim taken by IHC in 2012 which alleged the Government at the time breached the Bill of Rights Act with education policies that led to disadvantage for disabled students in local schools.
"I'd like to thank IHC and the Ministry of Education for their work in reaching a settlement. Our Government is committed to stronger learning support for students with additional needs so the right support gets to the child at the right time, and we have a proven track record of delivering that," Education Minister Erica Stanford says.
The settlement commits to a Framework for Action that responds to the support needs of disabled and neurodiverse students, and establishment of a stakeholder group to support its implementation.
The framework includes:
- better data reporting and collection
- improved access to specialist support services
- better coordination among education agencies to improve the system for disabled students
- taking steps to ensure the curriculum reflects and includes all learners
- taking steps to enable more accessible infrastructure
- an investigation of alternative funding structures
- an investigation into the impacts of government policies and funding decisions on attitudes of ableism (a focus on what disabled students can't do, rather than what they can).
"This Government has already made a start on the measures in the framework. In Budget 25, we delivered the most significant investment in learning support in a generation - $750 million - directly tackling the long-standing inequities IHC has raised.
"It's delivering up to over 2 million additional teacher aide hours per year, from 2028; Learning Support Co-ordinators for all schools with Year 1-8 students; expanding early intervention services from early learning through to end of year 1; and an historic overhaul of the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding model to ensure that demand for the service is met with guaranteed funding so all students with high and complex needs who are verified for ORS receive the support they need.
"We've also expanded the New Zealand Curriculum to support students with high and complex additional needs from Term 1 next year and included special schools in property network planning for the first time.
"For too long children have waited to receive support, or missed out altogether, on the help they need to reach their potential. We are addressing this by investing in a smart, system-wide reform that significantly increases specialist and support staff resources in our schools," Ms Stanford says.
