Government Boosts Funding for Disabled Students
23 May 2012 at 12:01 pm
The Gillard Government will inject $37 million into Victorian government schools to help students with disabilities.
Federal Parliamentary Secretary for School Education, Jacinta Collins said the funding will provide much needed specialised support to students in government schools across Victoria.
“The More Support for Students with Disabilities program is separate to the previously announced increase to independent and catholic schools and will bring the total spent in Victorian schools to support disabled students to $47.8 million,” Collins said.
“Children with disability can face disadvantage in achieving education and employment outcomes, and without this type of support they are less likely to reach their full potential, putting them at greater risk of unemployment and social exclusion,” she said.
The one off grant will come from a partnership between the Federal and Victorian State Governments.
Victorian State Education Minister, Martin Dixon, said that schools would use the funds in ways that would best suit the needs of students with disabilities, such as purchasing technology to provide real time captioning for students who are deaf or vision-impaired.
“This additional $37.2 million will be invested in programs we have designed to increase the capacity of mainstream schools to ensure families have real choice in education for students with a disability,” Dixon said.
$17.5 million will go towards providing professional learning programs, including a program for specialist school leadership to help schools better support the needs of students with extreme and challenging behaviour.
The Federal Government says the funding is a part of an overall $200 million national education initiative.
