From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 15:05:37 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:05:37 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu Message-ID: Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 15:48:42 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:48:42 +1000 Subject: FV: prep Message-ID: Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 16:16:37 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 07:16:37 +0800 Subject: FV: Swine flu In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000601ca1559$9d8c2300$d8a46900$@net.au> Hey Jane You say that your response to this risk is gut instinct....so go with that. Our job, and I think our gift, as mothers is to have an instinct for our children's safety. Now, for sure, this can go wrong and we can be overprotective but this isn't my impression of you - you support Sarah to get out there and do stuff, to take risks. So, I say go with your intuition on this one. This challenge of having a medically vulnerable child is one or which I don't see there being much support, even when it is such a huge challenge. I feel like I have been good at letting Eli take risks in his life, but the one regret I have is not being a lot more paranoid about his health. We have nearly lost him four times, and on three of those occasions it was because I wasn't paranoid enough and didn't listen to my maternal instinct to protect him...there can be so much pressure on you not be overly vigilant and even to go against what the doctors might say when in your heart you know better. We put an application in over here for Community Living Funding which was declined, and one of the reasons was that we had asked for support with Eli's medical costs. Their trite response that 'all people have medical costs' (and the implication that we had a gall to dare ask for help with them)kinda floored me, and I think is evidence of how the system really doesn't understand the challenges of having a disability and complex medical needs, let alone the stress on us as families as we negotiate these needs. 'Most' 18 year old kids don't have the half a dozen or so medical conditions Eli has, and don't have a $1200 a year bill for medication (even with the govt rebate). Sending good health vibes to you and Sarah, Jane...and good on you for being vigilant. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:06 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: Swine flu Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 16:26:14 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 07:26:14 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 18:02:19 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:02:19 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu In-Reply-To: <000601ca1559$9d8c2300$d8a46900$@net.au> References: <000601ca1559$9d8c2300$d8a46900$@net.au> Message-ID: <3F704D91-F583-4C79-8FD9-3E557214D1DB@bigpond.com> Jane It is hard to find the balance between over protective, proactive and practicality. I am in the recovery process from the flu at the moment so keeping a close eye on Mac. He has been a little "quiet" this week at school but we spoke about whether to give him a day off (Pyjama Day) today or tomorrow but their feeling was, he is just a bit quiet and really, if he is at home, then I am responsible for his care and I could still be germy so they felt he was better off at school. We can't be sure he isnt' quiet because I haven't been near him since Friday night or having lost my voice he can't hear me (or wonders why Kathleen Turner is barking orders at his Dad) - that could be making him a bit confused too. That being said, giving kids a bit of down time probably isn't that bad an idea. We had a long semester for Term 2 and I am tempted if I think Mac needs a couple of rest days this term to just do it as I think it is another long term. Sheesh, his cousins have way more days off than him and they have no 'high risk issues'. The key with the flu is that if symptoms appear then it is better to get straight into the Dr and get Tamiflu prescribed. It is only effective if taken within the first 48hrs of the flu symptoms appearing - it is literally a miracle drug. Within hours of taking the first tablet (I think you can get an liquid form too) I was feeling tonnes better. I now am battling more head cold symptoms than anything else. Mac had his flu shot this year (didn't last year) and I didn't this year - maybe it serves me right. I am not a huge fan of flu shots and the like, but think I probably have to just 'suck it up' and be mindful that with school etc I don't have the same level of control over his exposure anymore - so probably need to do it. Maybe a good nutritionist could give you some insights into some good multi vitamin drinks for Sarah - i know she is a bit of a bugger with her eating - maybe some of the protein shakes to help her keep her calories, nutrition etc up. I would just highlight it with the school as something you would be interested in eg if they can let you know if they think too many of her classmates are coming when they are unwell so you can decide whether or not to send her - surely they would be willing to help in that way. Make sure they don't feel responsible for keeping her well - that is too stressful, as parents we find that hard enough so it is really just letting them know you are happy to have any insights they might have. A few of the kids we know who have CP and other medical conditions have had Swine Flu and with the Tamiflu meds they haven't had any major issues - one of the kids has a trache etc and despite being in a bad way prior to medication - was out of hospital in a matter of days. We don't really do the Dr thing that much but if you were worried and had a good relationship with Sarah's dr maybe you can just firm up a plan just in case so that you have something with you if she was unlucky enough to get sick on a weekend and you needed to act a little quicker. Cheers Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:16 AM, Family Voices wrote: > Hey Jane > > > > You say that your response to this risk is gut instinct....so go > with that. Our job, and I think our gift, as mothers is to have an > instinct for our children?s safety. Now, for sure, this can go > wrong and we can be overprotective but this isn?t my impression of > you ? you support Sarah to get out there and do stuff, to take > risks. So, I say go with your intuition on this one. > > > > This challenge of having a medically vulnerable child is one or > which I don?t see there being much support, even when it is such a > huge challenge. I feel like I have been good at letting Eli take > risks in his life, but the one regret I have is not being a lot > more paranoid about his health. We have nearly lost him four times, > and on three of those occasions it was because I wasn?t paranoid > enough and didn?t listen to my maternal instinct to protect > him...there can be so much pressure on you not be overly vigilant > and even to go against what the doctors might say when in your > heart you know better. > > > > We put an application in over here for Community Living Funding > which was declined, and one of the reasons was that we had asked > for support with Eli?s medical costs. Their trite response that > ?all people have medical costs? (and the implication that we had a > gall to dare ask for help with them)kinda floored me, and I think > is evidence of how the system really doesn?t understand the > challenges of having a disability and complex medical needs, let > alone the stress on us as families as we negotiate these needs. > ?Most? 18 year old kids don?t have the half a dozen or so medical > conditions Eli has, and don?t have a $1200 a year bill for > medication (even with the govt rebate). > > Sending good health vibes to you and Sarah, Jane...and good on you > for being vigilant. > > > > Jaquie J > > > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:06 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: FV: Swine flu > > > Hello FV > > Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I > respect so much. > > I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of > feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk > category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory > complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. > > She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going > to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner > last night with social group. Remembering that there would have > been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. > > She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who > say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not > confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you > think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about > her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible > risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I > throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and > feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people > thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and > she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. > > Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on > here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick > your wonderful mind sometime. > > Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. > > Jane > > > > Jane Warner/Hudson > > 07 46714737 > > > > > > > E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) > Database version: 5.12970 > http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: > 08/04/09 05:57:00 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 18:34:42 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:34:42 +1000 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> Message-ID: Hi Jane/Jac This is an interesting one. I don't have any fully resolved thoughts on this but think it would/could make it quite difficult for Prep schools to see the light and understand they can, in many cases, include many kids without additional funding. The problem would be the Preps could push kids back segregated setting stating 'more support'. But, take a child like Mac, he needed to be fed, changed, tube fed, moved and then any modifications required, and in many cases adult assistance, for him to access the same games/work as any of the other kids is on top of that. There is no possible way that 2 hours a week can do that. One feed could take one hour. Then he could choke, gag, vomit etc and need adult intervention to make sure he was ok. You couldn't leave him without close adult supervision between the ages of 2-4 because of the high risk of choking - it is hard to believe anyone took him Prep kids are not able to be as useful as peer support as they are so young and learning how to exist independently themselves. Some will be ok, but there is a big difference I think in prep (assuming it is the same as our Pre-School) to even another year on in Kindergarten with the 6yo kids is vast. That being said, I think there is a need to distinguish between personal care requirements (feeding, toileting, cleaning, positioning/ moving) and educational support requirements. Personal care must not be negotiable and should be funded and performed by an adult. In highschool I think peers could be trained to do moving/positioning in two person lifts or hoists if they chose to do so. Not sure how DET would view this, but if these are kids who want to be mates then part of being a friend is sharing the load (literally). Most teenagers don't require anywhere near the positioning issues young kids do so it does get easier I am sure. Mac pretty much has full time aide support in Kindergarten and Mac's main aide support staff are great at understanding they need to focus on the modifications and access to curriculum, but any fillin aides get sooooo caught up in the whole personal care stuff and don't do any of the curriculum stuff. We'll get there in time. The school has just recently implemented a new lunchtime play arrangement where the teacher on duty is responsible for Mac but the senior kids are his 'muscle' in that they are responsible for moving his wheelchair, playing with him etc. There is a group of 'strong willed' seniors who are pretty determined to have control of him so the school sees this as a way to see if there are other kids who want a chance and can then roster them into a role of responsibility to kind of 'thwart' the power plays that would otherwise go on. Mac doesn't care, he seems to love not being around adults LOL. I would be interested to know what their background to this 'decree' is. I worry that by not providing appropriate supports to help parents feel comfortable choosing a mainstream environment they will work on the 'fear factor' and push them to segregation by suggesting there is more support or funding. That is the scary bit as far as I can see it. I might have some more to say, but as I am still not feeling 100% will leave it at that and ponder some more. Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:26 AM, Family Voices wrote: > Hi again > > > > Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... > > > > The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this > issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one > of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support > should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we > unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we > get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school > (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including > him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was > a full time aide. In retrospect he didn?t need that at all. He did > need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide > less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the > curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was > concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. > > > > I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don?t > think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our > child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support > hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be > ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those > we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids > actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with > that. I am thinking back to Eli?s Community Living application > which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of > paid support, we were told the application would have been > successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well > they couldn?t cope with real life challenges which don?t involve > paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another > one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a > vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet > this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff > the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not > understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in > Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don?t > get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) > > > > Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. > > > > Jaquie J > > > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: FV: prep > > > Hi > > Is me again. People thoughts?? > > I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with > disabilities in prep was described as follows. > > Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have > diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, > ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be > able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That?s it from Central > and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put > in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in > decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. > > I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be > the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I > agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this > black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our > wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was > interested in FVs thoughts. > > Regards Jane > > > > Jane Warner/Hudson > > 07 46714737 > > > > > > > E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) > Database version: 5.12970 > http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: > 08/04/09 05:57:00 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 18:47:01 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:47:01 +1000 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> Message-ID: <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns ______________________________________ Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. Might be a Darrell job too. Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on to a journo on The Australian. We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of 'appropriate' supports etc My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after the following article appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will recognise it as Fiona) If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view it in your browser ? faye, faye galbraith (fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au) thought you might find this article from interesting: Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' | August 04, 2009 From: The Australian b THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that give schools extra money for students with disabilities. A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads. The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. Click here to read the full article on the website Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/ 0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html ... Excerpt of email to The Australian I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a powerchair for mobility, can?t sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet independently. He?s always been in mainstream schools as I can?t see the relevance of a special school just because he can?t walk. He is just a member of our society and needs different supports to be included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. We moved from Sydney?s northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get rid of our massive ?disability debt? and live somewhere slightly cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because our son can?t walk. In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour funding support per week. Even the school doesn?t know how much he is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of choice in selecting schools for parents of students with disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support needs or intellectual support needs. It doesn?t begin to address the other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater student independence and interaction with learning. Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and I?d say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher aides. I disagree. Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student benefits from the same technology. It?s just that students with physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to independently and actively participate in their school curriculum and learning. Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teacher?s aide to ?interpret? what a SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone else?s. Example 2: have a teacher?s aide constantly sitting with an SWD to write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student to work independently, and a digital pen for the teacher?s notes to be transmitted to the student?s laptop or onto USB for later downloading. I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in any education system who has researched what targeted learning supports can be matched to students? needs. We have done all this research ourselves, and at my son?s current school personally funded the laptop etc. NAPLAN which administers national assessments don?t even have online assessments and they don?t report on educational outcomes of students with disabilities, although they and the states do report on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability are viewed as not disadvantaged? I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: ?It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working hard to let them see it too. I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse them from reaching their potential. Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the expectation to learn is there. For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional disability or illness, this might look different for our child to another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all decisions and strategies we help put in place. I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made to the school once they have managed to get them achieving targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep happily taking it even if it wasn't truly warranted - but I guess that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't see that changing in a hurry.? ?Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded at J?s IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his abilities & highlight always what he couldn?t do. That was the only way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at J?s SSP 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students !? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: email-bg-header.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1735 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 19:12:57 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 12:12:57 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu In-Reply-To: <3F704D91-F583-4C79-8FD9-3E557214D1DB@bigpond.com> References: <000601ca1559$9d8c2300$d8a46900$@net.au> <3F704D91-F583-4C79-8FD9-3E557214D1DB@bigpond.com> Message-ID: Thanks ladies I have had not so good conversation with Sarah class teacher but seeing Special head at 4.00 great to have you knowledge behind me. I have thought I sending it to this particular person at school. Much love Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 11:02 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: Swine flu Jane It is hard to find the balance between over protective, proactive and practicality. I am in the recovery process from the flu at the moment so keeping a close eye on Mac. He has been a little "quiet" this week at school but we spoke about whether to give him a day off (Pyjama Day) today or tomorrow but their feeling was, he is just a bit quiet and really, if he is at home, then I am responsible for his care and I could still be germy so they felt he was better off at school. We can't be sure he isnt' quiet because I haven't been near him since Friday night or having lost my voice he can't hear me (or wonders why Kathleen Turner is barking orders at his Dad) - that could be making him a bit confused too. That being said, giving kids a bit of down time probably isn't that bad an idea. We had a long semester for Term 2 and I am tempted if I think Mac needs a couple of rest days this term to just do it as I think it is another long term. Sheesh, his cousins have way more days off than him and they have no 'high risk issues'. The key with the flu is that if symptoms appear then it is better to get straight into the Dr and get Tamiflu prescribed. It is only effective if taken within the first 48hrs of the flu symptoms appearing - it is literally a miracle drug. Within hours of taking the first tablet (I think you can get an liquid form too) I was feeling tonnes better. I now am battling more head cold symptoms than anything else. Mac had his flu shot this year (didn't last year) and I didn't this year - maybe it serves me right. I am not a huge fan of flu shots and the like, but think I probably have to just 'suck it up' and be mindful that with school etc I don't have the same level of control over his exposure anymore - so probably need to do it. Maybe a good nutritionist could give you some insights into some good multi vitamin drinks for Sarah - i know she is a bit of a bugger with her eating - maybe some of the protein shakes to help her keep her calories, nutrition etc up. I would just highlight it with the school as something you would be interested in eg if they can let you know if they think too many of her classmates are coming when they are unwell so you can decide whether or not to send her - surely they would be willing to help in that way. Make sure they don't feel responsible for keeping her well - that is too stressful, as parents we find that hard enough so it is really just letting them know you are happy to have any insights they might have. A few of the kids we know who have CP and other medical conditions have had Swine Flu and with the Tamiflu meds they haven't had any major issues - one of the kids has a trache etc and despite being in a bad way prior to medication - was out of hospital in a matter of days. We don't really do the Dr thing that much but if you were worried and had a good relationship with Sarah's dr maybe you can just firm up a plan just in case so that you have something with you if she was unlucky enough to get sick on a weekend and you needed to act a little quicker. Cheers Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:16 AM, Family Voices wrote: Hey Jane You say that your response to this risk is gut instinct....so go with that. Our job, and I think our gift, as mothers is to have an instinct for our children's safety. Now, for sure, this can go wrong and we can be overprotective but this isn't my impression of you - you support Sarah to get out there and do stuff, to take risks. So, I say go with your intuition on this one. This challenge of having a medically vulnerable child is one or which I don't see there being much support, even when it is such a huge challenge. I feel like I have been good at letting Eli take risks in his life, but the one regret I have is not being a lot more paranoid about his health. We have nearly lost him four times, and on three of those occasions it was because I wasn't paranoid enough and didn't listen to my maternal instinct to protect him...there can be so much pressure on you not be overly vigilant and even to go against what the doctors might say when in your heart you know better. We put an application in over here for Community Living Funding which was declined, and one of the reasons was that we had asked for support with Eli's medical costs. Their trite response that 'all people have medical costs' (and the implication that we had a gall to dare ask for help with them)kinda floored me, and I think is evidence of how the system really doesn't understand the challenges of having a disability and complex medical needs, let alone the stress on us as families as we negotiate these needs. 'Most' 18 year old kids don't have the half a dozen or so medical conditions Eli has, and don't have a $1200 a year bill for medication (even with the govt rebate). Sending good health vibes to you and Sarah, Jane...and good on you for being vigilant. Jaquie :-) From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:06 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: Swine flu Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 20:03:42 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:03:42 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> Message-ID: <00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, Where to start: * On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from "fruit time" to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most vulnerable. * First issue on "new formula" is that we should never assume governments will ever "get" inclusion. The words are currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. * Given this act of formula-izing support, as has been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this as nothing more or less than: o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher's reading assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child's entry to hospital?) o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing in the school's architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the child. Duuh. * Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this-especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we didn't- did a huge review of the research up the 90's that is worthy starting point.) o TA's were first conceptualized as a "cheap" entry point to the then popular "integration". o It was actually seen as a "sweetener" to "induce" teachers to "accept these kids" when they came to visit. It is sick - but that was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70's, 80's and 90's. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical variable for successful inclusion). * Now, reduced support by government to schools to become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is wrapped, I am sure, in "empowering schools to make their own decisions" but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA's but instead is: o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building school capacity for inclusion o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues (besides TA's) and is not just cost cutting. * Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting partial enrolment. o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go over? o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more detail. (Over to you Bob). Kindest thoughts. Darrell From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 79 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 21:16:12 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:16:12 +1000 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: <00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Message-ID: Darrell As always your knowledge is amazing and comments fantastic. I think I will start using the language of "what support do you need" to the adults responsible for Mac's education etc rather than making it about him. ha ha, it makes me giggle just thinking about the reporting of REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Teacher's Deficiencies in providing Education Outcomes eg: Mrs T, Stage 1 Teacher Has difficulty identifying the core element of a lesson Unable to break down each topic of the day into 3 choice based options Does not have basic computer literacy skills to develop appropriate interactive lessons Is unaware how to offer both visual and auditory elements to classroom teaching Is afraid of technology and equipment which may assist learning... Funding Allocation: Mrs T requires the additional support of one untrained adult to help her meet her teaching obligations for three hours a day. Mrs T needs to undertake professional development in the following areas..... 1,2,3,4,5 Failure to achieve identified professional development outcomes will result in aforementioned supports being removed. Can't see me being the person in charge of funding in the future.... Gina On 05/08/2009, at 1:03 PM, Family Voices wrote: > Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, > > Where to start: > > On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by > humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it > arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories > when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from ?fruit > time? to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is > something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF > still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most > vulnerable. > > First issue on ?new formula? is that we should > never assume governments will ever ?get? inclusion. The words are > currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is > popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out > if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook > rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. > > Given this act of formula-izing support, as has > been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this > as nothing more or less than: > > o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources > > o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need > into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated > and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. > This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse > ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher?s reading > assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child?s entry to > hospital?) > > o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special > education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus > measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the > medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the > setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the > setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing > in the school?s architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the > child. Duuh. > > Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold > statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including > brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but > s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this- > especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada > - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we > didn?t- did a huge review of the research up the 90?s that is > worthy starting point.) > > o TA?s were first conceptualized as a ?cheap? entry point to the > then popular ?integration?. > > o It was actually seen as a ?sweetener? to ?induce? teachers to > ?accept these kids? when they came to visit. It is sick ? but that > was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70?s, 80?s > and 90?s. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history > will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen > (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least > unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical > variable for successful inclusion). > > Now, reduced support by government to schools to > become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is > wrapped, I am sure, in ?empowering schools to make their own > decisions? but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be > that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA?s > but instead is: > > o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building > school capacity for inclusion > > o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move > and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues > (besides TA?s) and is not just cost cutting. > > Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting > partial enrolment. > > o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean > spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by > preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we > suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save > some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go > over? > > o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the > limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. > > o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial > placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more > detail. (Over to you Bob). > > Kindest thoughts. > > Darrell > > > > > > > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: Re: FV: prep > > > Hi again > > > > Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... > > > > The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this > issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one > of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support > should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we > unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we > get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school > (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including > him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was > a full time aide. In retrospect he didn?t need that at all. He did > need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide > less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the > curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was > concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. > > > > I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don?t > think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our > child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support > hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be > ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those > we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids > actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with > that. I am thinking back to Eli?s Community Living application > which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of > paid support, we were told the application would have been > successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well > they couldn?t cope with real life challenges which don?t involve > paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another > one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a > vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet > this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff > the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not > understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in > Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don?t > get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) > > > > Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. > > > > Jaquie J > > > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: FV: prep > > > Hi > > Is me again. People thoughts?? > > I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with > disabilities in prep was described as follows. > > Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have > diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, > ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be > able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That?s it from Central > and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put > in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in > decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. > > I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be > the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I > agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this > black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our > wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was > interested in FVs thoughts. > > Regards Jane > > > > Jane Warner/Hudson > > 07 46714737 > > > > > > > E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) > Database version: 5.12970 > http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: > 08/04/09 05:57:00 > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 21:43:44 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:43:44 +1000 Subject: FV: Students Need Us campaign in NSW Message-ID: <6158C488-001A-4432-BC45-995F31DC9504@bigpond.com> Hi all Jane, don't worry - QLD isn't the only batch who don't have a clue. In NSW the State arm of the Public Service Association has established an organisation called "Students Need Us". It is trying to secure better employment conditions for its members. BUT, it is using kids with disabilities to try and get the sympathy vote (in my opinion). I am not, and was not impressed with their approach. This is the same organisation that has put a directive out to members that 'tube feeding is optional' and in one instance that I know of a child was not fed at all while at school and the Principal's response was - it's optional, instead of communicating to the parent there was a trained staff shortage that day and getting backup or help. Here's a copy of my letter to DET, relevant Ministers etc which also contains my original 'blurt' to the Union organisation. The response from the Union was they felt I was being mean spirited, poor little poppets. The response from NSW DET is that they are planning a meeting with me next month because they are keen to learn/hear more - chipping away, slowly, slowly. Gina Dear Sir Earlier to day I was forwarded a copy of an email from the ?Students Need Us? organisation outlining their perceived ?threat by the NSW Government plans to LSOs?. However, I am a parent of a child with profound, multiple disabilities who is in a mainstream class in his local public school and would like to offer you my feedback which is in DIRECT CONTRAST to this groups demands and claims. We strive for an ordinary, valued life for our son Mac where he is an accepted and recognised member of the community, where he is a son, cousin, friend, student and eventually maybe an employee, a flat mate, a home owner, a car owner (no need to rely on Community Transport or Wheelchair Cabs when you only need a driver). We don?t believe he should be segregated out of his community in to a special school or special class. We do not envision a life for him controlled by service providers or people ?paid to care?. We have chosen a mainstream life for Mac because that is the only option to set him on the right path to a valued life. For your information I provide my email response to the ?Students Need Us? group/organisation to allow you some insight from families who actually live this day in day out and who aren?t ?conned? by the emotive approach of these organisations. I am more than happy to make my time available to you should you wish to get a greater understanding of what is possible for a child when you provide appropriate supports, technology and strategies, particularly a child who could easily be discarded by society and the education system deemed simply ?too hard? ? or handed off to the ?babysitting care? of an LSO so the ?educator? isn?t inconvenienced by his presence. Should you wish to understand more of Mac?s journey you can catch up on his story at http://inkyed.wordpress.com . ATTACHMENT: RESPONSE TO STUDENTS NEED US EMAIL CALLING FOR SUPPORT FROM: GINA WILSON-BURNS To Whom It May Concern As a parent of a child who has been described, by DET officers, as the most disabled child ever to be mainstreamed, I believe you may have your intentions mixed up with simply trying to ensure people have jobs. I don?t believe you truly understand what is needed or sought by many parents of children with disabilities. Sure, there are some parents out there who think having a LSO is a safety measure, they don?t mind the babysitting stigma it puts on their child, they don?t care if an untrained person takes up the responsibility for their child?s education. They don?t consider that the velcroing of an LSO to the side of a child already at risk of being devalued in society only adds to that risk. I do not wish the LSO to be the person responsible for my child?s education ? they are not trained educators, they are assistants to help the teacher in the classroom, at the teachers direction. Every LSO should be striving to become redundant in my child?s life. If the right supports and right technologies are in place then my child will only need adult assistance for his personal care needs (feeding/ toileting). If the right strategies are in place then the teacher will be able to meet the needs of all students in their class from the child with multiple profound disabilities to the gifted and talented child. I am more than happy to provide more input into this topic if you are serious about truly meeting the needs of the child with additional needs and not just trying to improve membership to staff associations or unions. You need to be able to challenge the parent who wants to mollycoddle their child, who will allow them to be devalued by their actions. A LSO is not there for the child, they are there for the teacher ? you should be clearer in educating all parents, teachers and children of this aspect of the LSOs. LSOs can be very useful or very damaging to children with additional needs. They can block normal childhood interactions ? don?t forget most adults are dreadfully boring in the eyes of children. If other children don?t like the LSO they won?t engage with the child. LSOs also remove the responsibility from the teacher in many circumstances ? particularly in mainstream settings. Teachers will hide under the ?oh I haven?t been trained in special ed? excuse ? this is ridiculous. An educator has been taught how to educate, sure they might need to learn more about some of the technology and different strategies, but that type of personal and professional development will only help them with all children forever more. We would be far better making ongoing Professional Development compulsory, particularly in alternative teaching strategies and technology, for all teachers if they are to keep moving forward and stay respected in their profession. END Thank you for your time. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 22:26:43 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 13:26:43 +0800 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> Message-ID: <013601ca158d$51eeb190$f5cc14b0$@com> Uh..where to start is biggest issue: 1. See last posting about TA?s that Jane was talking about. 2. The right questions are what are also needed. That is (as I have been discussing with our friends met in Canada-June Downing-key note of conference and Tim Loreman-the recovering Aussie who won the award for best inclusionary uni program): a. Is there evidence that segregated education works? (yes) b. Is there evidence that inclusive education works? (yes) c. Is there evidence that segregated education produces superior results to inclusive education? (none in 77 years) Once the weight of the answer to this last question sinks in, we should be asking, why isn?t the burden of proof being asked of the segregators? We are constantly being asked to ?justify? inclusion with proof and yet segregation is a step away from liberty and thus should rightly be forced to bear the burden of proof. Such proof would need to be very superior, not just a point or 2 but far superior to outweigh what was shown in the 60?s in the racial studies in US as huge costs of segregation. Thus, even IF superior, it would need to be really superior to off-set the costs of segregation. Then when you look, what you see is that such evidence has NEVER existed. Not even ?made up? evidence. So we have to then ask, why did we actually build segregation at all ? if we knew from Harvard studies in 1932 that it was not superior and that every major review since has confirmed that it is not-including the more recent study of the WHOLE Dutch education system. The answer is of course, that what we do politically has NOTHING to do with efficacy, educational or otherwise. Once you get your head around this (it is pretty hard and takes some otherwise excellent education researchers but die-hard proponents of segregation many years to admit that indeed the Emperor has no clothes. Here are a few references to whet your appetite: Jackson, R. (2008). Inclusion or Segregation for Children with an Intellectual Impairment: What does the research say? Manuscript prepared for QPPD. Giangreco, M. F., Yuan, S., & McKenzie, B. (2005). "Be Careful What You Wish for...": Five Reasons to Be Concerned About the Assignment of Individual Paraprofessionals. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37(5), 28-34. Jackson, R. L., Chalmers, R., & Wills, D. (2004). Should schools include children with disabilities? Interaction, 17, 24-30. Markussen, E. (2004). Special education: does it help? A study of special education in Norwegian upper secondary schools. European Journal of Special Needs Education,19(1), 33-48. Karsten, S., Peetsma, T., & Roeleveld, J. (2001). The Dutch policy of integration put to the test: differences in academic and psychosocial development of pupils in special and mainstream education. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 16(3), 193-205. Peetsma, T., Vergeer, M., & Roeleveld, J. (2001). Inclusion in education: comparing pupils' development in special and regular education. Educational Review,53(2), 125-135. Lipsky, D. K., & Gartner, A. (1996). Inclusion, school restructuring, and the remaking of American society. Harvard Educational Review, 66,762-796. Wills, D., & Jackson, R. (1996). Inclusion: Much more than being there. Interaction(10), 2. Uditsky, B. (1993). From integration to inclusion: The Canadian experience. In R. Slee (Ed.), "Is there a desk with my name on it? The politics of integration (pp. 79-92): Farmer Press. Calberg, C., & Kavale, K. (1980). The efficacy of special versus regular placement for exceptional children: A meta analysis. The Journal of Special Education, 14(3), 295-309. Dunn, I. M. (1968). Special education for the mildly retarded - Is much of it justifiable? Exceptional Children,35, 5-22. And the most ancient one: Bennett, A. (1932). A comparative study of subnormal children in the elementary grades. NY: Bureau of Publications, Teacher?s College, Columbia University. From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:47 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns ______________________________________ Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. Might be a Darrell job too. Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on to a journo on The Australian. We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of 'appropriate' supports etc My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after thefollowingarticle appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will recognise it as Fiona) If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view it in your browser faye, faye galbraith ( fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au) thought you might find this article from interesting: Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' | August 04, 2009 From: The Australian b THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that give schools extra money for students with disabilities. A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads. The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. Click here to read the full article on the website Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html ... Excerpt of email to The Australian I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a powerchair for mobility, cant sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet independently. Hes always been in mainstream schools as I cant see the relevance of a special school just because he cant walk. He is just a member of our society and needs different supports to be included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. We moved from Sydneys northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get rid of our massive disability debt and live somewhere slightly cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because our son cant walk. In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour funding support per week. Even the school doesnt know how much he is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of choice in selecting schools for parents of students with disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support needs or intellectual support needs. It doesnt begin to address the other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater student independence and interaction with learning. Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and Id say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher aides. I disagree. Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student benefits from the same technology. Its just that students with physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to independently and actively participate in their school curriculum and learning. Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teachers aide to interpret what a SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone elses. Example 2: have a teachers aide constantly sitting with an SWD to write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student to work independently, and a digital pen for the teachers notes to be transmitted to the students laptop or onto USB for later downloading. I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in any education system who has researched what targeted learning supports can be matched to students needs. We have done all this research ourselves, and at my sons current school personally funded the laptop etc. NAPLAN which administers national assessments dont even have online assessments and they dont report on educational outcomes of students with disabilities, although they and the states do report on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability are viewed as not disadvantaged? I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working hard to let them see it too. I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse them from reaching their potential. Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the expectation to learn is there. For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional disability or illness, this might look different for our child to another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all decisions and strategies we help put in place. I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made to the school once they have managed to get them achieving targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep happily taking it even if it wasn't trulywarranted - but I guess that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't see that changing in a hurry. Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded at Js IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his abilities & highlight always what he couldnt do. That was the only way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at Js SSP 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students ! __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1735 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 22:40:29 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:40:29 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu References: Message-ID: Hi Jane/Gina and all Jane, I agree with "go with your instincts." Over 35 years of being a parent, I can recall many times I have gone with my gut feelings around my children and been right! (A few wrongs too, but more rights!) Not just decisions around Lauren, but the others as well. Mum's have amazing instincts - My husband is often amazed at how I can hone in on a suspicion that something isn't quite right. It must be something we are given with our babies. Jane, I have been wondering how Sarah has got along with her job? Is it still working out? Some positive news from our place around Lauren Next week (Wed) she is being rewarded for her 1000 hours of voluntary work at ACMI. There is to be a presentation by the CEO and she will be given a certificate and a gift voucher to the value of $200 to restaurants in Federation Square. She has people lined up who want to dine out with her!! So, we are most proud of her achievements and so are the staff at ACMI. Stay warm Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: Family Voices To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 8:05 AM Subject: FV: Swine flu Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 22:58:36 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:58:36 +1000 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: <013601ca158d$51eeb190$f5cc14b0$@com> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> <013601ca158d$51eeb190$f5cc14b0$@com> Message-ID: Thanks Darrell That is a great list to have. I will make sure I have them all for myself as well. Regards Gina On 05/08/2009, at 3:26 PM, Family Voices wrote: > Uh..where to start is biggest issue: > 1. See last posting about TA?s that Jane was talking about. > 2. The right questions are what are also needed. That is (as > I have been discussing with our friends met in Canada-June Downing- > key note of conference and Tim Loreman-the recovering Aussie who > won the award for best inclusionary uni program): > a. Is there evidence that segregated education works? (yes) > b. Is there evidence that inclusive education works? (yes) > c. Is there evidence that segregated education produces > superior results to inclusive education? (none in 77 years) > > Once the weight of the answer to this last question sinks in, we > should be asking, why isn?t the burden of proof being asked of the > segregators? We are constantly being asked to ?justify? inclusion > with proof and yet segregation is a step away from liberty and thus > should rightly be forced to bear the burden of proof. Such proof > would need to be very superior, not just a point or 2 but far > superior to outweigh what was shown in the 60?s in the racial > studies in US as huge costs of segregation. Thus, even IF superior, > it would need to be really superior to off-set the costs of > segregation. Then when you look, what you see is that such evidence > has NEVER existed. Not even ?made up? evidence. So we have to then > ask, why did we actually build segregation at all ? if we knew from > Harvard studies in 1932 that it was not superior and that every > major review since has confirmed that it is not-including the more > recent study of the WHOLE Dutch education system. The answer is of > course, that what we do politically has NOTHING to do with > efficacy, educational or otherwise. > Once you get your head around this (it is pretty hard and takes > some otherwise excellent education researchers but die-hard > proponents of segregation many years to admit that indeed the > Emperor has no clothes. Here are a few references to whet your > appetite: > > Jackson, R. (2008). Inclusion or Segregation for Children with an > Intellectual Impairment: What does the research say? Manuscript > prepared for QPPD. > Giangreco, M. F., Yuan, S., & McKenzie, B. (2005). "Be Careful What > You Wish for...": Five Reasons to Be Concerned About the > Assignment of Individual Paraprofessionals. Teaching Exceptional > Children, 37(5), 28-34. > Jackson, R. L., Chalmers, R., & Wills, D. (2004). Should schools > include children with disabilities? Interaction, 17, 24-30. > Markussen, E. (2004). Special education: does it help? A study of > special education in Norwegian upper secondary schools. European > Journal of Special Needs Education,19(1), 33-48. > Karsten, S., Peetsma, T., & Roeleveld, J. (2001). The Dutch policy > of integration put to the test: differences in academic and > psychosocial development of pupils in special and mainstream > education. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 16(3), > 193-205. > Peetsma, T., Vergeer, M., & Roeleveld, J. (2001). Inclusion in > education: comparing pupils' development in special and regular > education. Educational Review,53(2), 125-135. > Lipsky, D. K., & Gartner, A. (1996). Inclusion, school > restructuring, and the remaking of American society. Harvard > Educational Review, 66,762-796. > Wills, D., & Jackson, R. (1996). Inclusion: Much more than being > there. Interaction(10), 2. > Uditsky, B. (1993). From integration to inclusion: The Canadian > experience. In R. Slee (Ed.), "Is there a desk with my name on it? > The politics of integration (pp. 79-92): Farmer Press. > Calberg, C., & Kavale, K. (1980). The efficacy of special versus > regular placement for exceptional children: A meta analysis. The > Journal of Special Education, 14(3), 295-309. > Dunn, I. M. (1968). Special education for the mildly retarded - Is > much of it justifiable? Exceptional Children,35, 5-22. > And the most ancient one: > Bennett, A. (1932). A comparative study of subnormal children in > the elementary grades. NY: Bureau of Publications, Teacher?s > College, Columbia University. > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:47 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes > > FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns > ______________________________________ > > Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. > > Might be a Darrell job too. > > Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where > showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on > to a journo on The Australian. > > We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on > different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of > 'appropriate' supports etc > > My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after > thefollowingarticle appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is > starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will > recognise it as Fiona) > > If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view > it in your browser > > > faye, faye galbraith (fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au) thought you > might find this article from interesting: > Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' > | August 04, 2009 > From: The Australian > > > b > > > > THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or > emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that > give schools extra money for students with disabilities. > > A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the > proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more > than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively > placing a "bounty" on students' heads. > > The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions > such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. > > > > Click here to read the full article on the website > > Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: > http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/ > 0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html > ... Excerpt of email to The Australian > > I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a > powerchair for mobility, cant sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet > independently. Hes always been in mainstream schools as I cant see > the relevance of a special school just because he cant walk. He is > just a member of our society and needs different supports to be > included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. > We moved from Sydneys northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get > rid of our massive disability debt and live somewhere slightly > cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic > school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include > every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know > we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless > government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because > our son cant walk. > In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support > funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his > disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour > funding support per week. Even the school doesnt know how much he > is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. > There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, > states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of > choice in selecting schools for parents of students with > disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support > needs or intellectual support needs. It doesnt begin to address the > other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater > student independence and interaction with learning. > Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education > systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they > use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic > and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general > teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and Id > say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the > faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal > targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher > aides. I disagree. > Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides > shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion > and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a > student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted > learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant > software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student > benefits from the same technology. Its just that students with > physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to > independently and actively participate in their school curriculum > and learning. > Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teachers aide to interpret what a > SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an > eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the > ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone > elses. > Example 2: have a teachers aide constantly sitting with an SWD to > write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths > problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student > to work independently, and a digital pen for the teachers notes to > be transmitted to the students laptop or onto USB for later > downloading. > I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in > any education system who has researched what targeted learning > supports can be matched to students needs. We have done all this > research ourselves, and at my sons current school personally funded > the laptop etc. > NAPLAN which administers national assessments dont even have online > assessments and they dont report on educational outcomes of > students with disabilities, although they and the states do report > on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability > are viewed as not disadvantaged? > I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some > other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. > Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: > It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by > their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working > hard to let them see it too. > > I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good > classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the > problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get > passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop > striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse > them from reaching their potential. > Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers > should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the > expectation to learn is there. > For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & > decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional > disability or illness, this might look different for our child to > another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be > accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking > up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all > decisions and strategies we help put in place. > I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with > emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed > as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made > to the school once they have managed to get them achieving > targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes > of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do > even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and > parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep > happily taking it even if it wasn't trulywarranted - but I guess > that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't > see that changing in a hurry. > Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded > at Js IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his > abilities & highlight always what he couldnt do. That was the only > way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional > teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were > intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad > indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at Js SSP > 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from > 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. > So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment > their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide > for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students ! > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 23:06:21 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 16:06:21 +1000 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> Message-ID: Hi Gina, Have attached some articles from Family Advocacy?s library that you might find useful. regards Catherine Hogan From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 11:47 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns ______________________________________ Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. Might be a Darrell job too. Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on to a journo on The Australian. We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of 'appropriate' supports etc My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after thefollowingarticle appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will recognise it as Fiona) If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view it in your browser faye, faye galbraith (fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au ) thought you might find this article from interesting: Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' | August 04, 2009 From: The Australian b THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that give schools extra money for students with disabilities. A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads. The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. Click here to read the full article on the website Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html ... Excerpt of email to The Australian I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a powerchair for mobility, cant sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet independently. Hes always been in mainstream schools as I cant see the relevance of a special school just because he cant walk. He is just a member of our society and needs different supports to be included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. We moved from Sydneys northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get rid of our massive disability debt and live somewhere slightly cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because our son cant walk. In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour funding support per week. Even the school doesnt know how much he is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of choice in selecting schools for parents of students with disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support needs or intellectual support needs. It doesnt begin to address the other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater student independence and interaction with learning. Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and Id say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher aides. I disagree. Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student benefits from the same technology. Its just that students with physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to independently and actively participate in their school curriculum and learning. Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teachers aide to interpret what a SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone elses. Example 2: have a teachers aide constantly sitting with an SWD to write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student to work independently, and a digital pen for the teachers notes to be transmitted to the students laptop or onto USB for later downloading. I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in any education system who has researched what targeted learning supports can be matched to students needs. We have done all this research ourselves, and at my sons current school personally funded the laptop etc. NAPLAN which administers national assessments dont even have online assessments and they dont report on educational outcomes of students with disabilities, although they and the states do report on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability are viewed as not disadvantaged? I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working hard to let them see it too. I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse them from reaching their potential. Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the expectation to learn is there. For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional disability or illness, this might look different for our child to another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all decisions and strategies we help put in place. I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made to the school once they have managed to get them achieving targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep happily taking it even if it wasn't trulywarranted - but I guess that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't see that changing in a hurry. Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded at Js IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his abilities & highlight always what he couldnt do. That was the only way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at Js SSP 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students ! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1735 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 11157 Why should schools include children.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 363181 bytes Desc: 11157 Why should schools include children.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 11161 - Things that might be helpful to consider.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 431648 bytes Desc: 11161 - Things that might be helpful to consider.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Inclusion or Segregation for children with an intellectual impairment.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 1949443 bytes Desc: Inclusion or Segregation for children with an intellectual impairment.pdf URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 23:22:47 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 16:22:47 +1000 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> Message-ID: <2B0D0910-8FC1-454C-90B2-0EE27DFB894A@bigpond.com> Thanks Catherine Appreciate it. It seems Justine Ferrari from the Australian is starting to get some of the big picture from what I can gather, starting to understand the ideas. The Australian have had a bit of a run on things "disability" in recent times and also indigenous education so hopefully there are some people who need to read it, reading it. Gina On 05/08/2009, at 4:06 PM, Family Voices wrote: > Hi Gina, > > Have attached some articles from Family Advocacy?s library that you > might find useful. > > regards > > > > Catherine Hogan > > From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com > [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of > Family Voices > Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 11:47 AM > To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com > Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes > > > > FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns > > ______________________________________ > > > > Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. > > > > Might be a Darrell job too. > > > > Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where > showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on > to a journo on The Australian. > > > > We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on > different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of > 'appropriate' supports etc > > > > My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after > thefollowingarticle appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is > starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will > recognise it as Fiona) > > > > If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view > it in your browser > > > > > faye, faye galbraith (fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au) thought you > might find this article from interesting: > > Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' > > | August 04, 2009 > > From: The Australian > > > > b > > > > THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or > emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that > give schools extra money for students with disabilities. > > A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the > proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more > than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively > placing a "bounty" on students' heads. > > The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions > such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. > > > > > > Click here to read the full article on the website > > Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: > http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/ > 0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html > ... Excerpt of email to The Australian > > > > I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a > powerchair for mobility, cant sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet > independently. Hes always been in mainstream schools as I cant see > the relevance of a special school just because he cant walk. He is > just a member of our society and needs different supports to be > included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. > > We moved from Sydneys northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get > rid of our massive disability debt and live somewhere slightly > cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic > school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include > every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know > we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless > government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because > our son cant walk. > > In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support > funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his > disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour > funding support per week. Even the school doesnt know how much he > is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. > > There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, > states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of > choice in selecting schools for parents of students with > disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support > needs or intellectual support needs. It doesnt begin to address the > other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater > student independence and interaction with learning. > > Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education > systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they > use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic > and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general > teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and Id > say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the > faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal > targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher > aides. I disagree. > > Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides > shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion > and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a > student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted > learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant > software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student > benefits from the same technology. Its just that students with > physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to > independently and actively participate in their school curriculum > and learning. > > Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teachers aide to interpret what a > SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an > eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the > ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone > elses. > > Example 2: have a teachers aide constantly sitting with an SWD to > write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths > problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student > to work independently, and a digital pen for the teachers notes to > be transmitted to the students laptop or onto USB for later > downloading. > > I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in > any education system who has researched what targeted learning > supports can be matched to students needs. We have done all this > research ourselves, and at my sons current school personally funded > the laptop etc. > > NAPLAN which administers national assessments dont even have online > assessments and they dont report on educational outcomes of > students with disabilities, although they and the states do report > on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability > are viewed as not disadvantaged? > > I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some > other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. > > Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: > > It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by > their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working > hard to let them see it too. > > I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good > classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the > problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get > passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop > striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse > them from reaching their potential. > > Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers > should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the > expectation to learn is there. > > For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & > decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional > disability or illness, this might look different for our child to > another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be > accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking > up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all > decisions and strategies we help put in place. > > I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with > emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed > as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made > to the school once they have managed to get them achieving > targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes > of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do > even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and > parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep > happily taking it even if it wasn't trulywarranted - but I guess > that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't > see that changing in a hurry. > > Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded > at Js IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his > abilities & highlight always what he couldnt do. That was the only > way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional > teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were > intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad > indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at Js SSP > 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from > 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. > So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment > their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide > for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students ! > > <11157 Why should schools include children.pdf><11161 > - Things that might be helpful to consider.pdf> Segregation for children with an intellectual impairment.pdf> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 4 23:54:32 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:54:32 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Message-ID: <01a101ca1599$965f5490$c31dfdb0$@com> Very funny Gina. Too bad it is so apt! Jokes aside, if we could get systems to see that it "ok" not to be up to full speed on inclusion (considering we do such little, relevant pre-training and have such little, relevant school support) and thus it should be "standard operating procedure" to at least annually measure where capacity needed to be built, it could be more coherent out there. Alas, coherency is not "in". Kindest thoughts. Dw From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 12:16 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Darrell As always your knowledge is amazing and comments fantastic. I think I will start using the language of "what support do you need" to the adults responsible for Mac's education etc rather than making it about him. ha ha, it makes me giggle just thinking about the reporting of REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Teacher's Deficiencies in providing Education Outcomes eg: Mrs T, Stage 1 Teacher Has difficulty identifying the core element of a lesson Unable to break down each topic of the day into 3 choice based options Does not have basic computer literacy skills to develop appropriate interactive lessons Is unaware how to offer both visual and auditory elements to classroom teaching Is afraid of technology and equipment which may assist learning... Funding Allocation: Mrs T requires the additional support of one untrained adult to help her meet her teaching obligations for three hours a day. Mrs T needs to undertake professional development in the following areas..... 1,2,3,4,5 Failure to achieve identified professional development outcomes will result in aforementioned supports being removed. Can't see me being the person in charge of funding in the future.... Gina On 05/08/2009, at 1:03 PM, Family Voices wrote: Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, Where to start: On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from "fruit time" to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most vulnerable. First issue on "new formula" is that we should never assume governments will ever "get" inclusion. The words are currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. Given this act of formula-izing support, as has been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this as nothing more or less than: o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher's reading assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child's entry to hospital?) o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing in the school's architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the child. Duuh. Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this-especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we didn't- did a huge review of the research up the 90's that is worthy starting point.) o TA's were first conceptualized as a "cheap" entry point to the then popular "integration". o It was actually seen as a "sweetener" to "induce" teachers to "accept these kids" when they came to visit. It is sick - but that was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70's, 80's and 90's. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical variable for successful inclusion). Now, reduced support by government to schools to become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is wrapped, I am sure, in "empowering schools to make their own decisions" but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA's but instead is: o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building school capacity for inclusion o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues (besides TA's) and is not just cost cutting. Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting partial enrolment. o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go over? o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more detail. (Over to you Bob). Kindest thoughts. Darrell From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 01:22:33 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 18:22:33 +1000 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au><00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Message-ID: Gina I love it. I said at a meeting on Monday a couple of times "I don't quite understand to me it doesn't seem like rocket science" Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 2:16 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Darrell As always your knowledge is amazing and comments fantastic. I think I will start using the language of "what support do you need" to the adults responsible for Mac's education etc rather than making it about him. ha ha, it makes me giggle just thinking about the reporting of REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Teacher's Deficiencies in providing Education Outcomes eg: Mrs T, Stage 1 Teacher Has difficulty identifying the core element of a lesson Unable to break down each topic of the day into 3 choice based options Does not have basic computer literacy skills to develop appropriate interactive lessons Is unaware how to offer both visual and auditory elements to classroom teaching Is afraid of technology and equipment which may assist learning... Funding Allocation: Mrs T requires the additional support of one untrained adult to help her meet her teaching obligations for three hours a day. Mrs T needs to undertake professional development in the following areas..... 1,2,3,4,5 Failure to achieve identified professional development outcomes will result in aforementioned supports being removed. Can't see me being the person in charge of funding in the future.... Gina On 05/08/2009, at 1:03 PM, Family Voices wrote: Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, Where to start: On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from "fruit time" to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most vulnerable. First issue on "new formula" is that we should never assume governments will ever "get" inclusion. The words are currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. Given this act of formula-izing support, as has been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this as nothing more or less than: o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher's reading assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child's entry to hospital?) o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing in the school's architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the child. Duuh. Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this-especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we didn't- did a huge review of the research up the 90's that is worthy starting point.) o TA's were first conceptualized as a "cheap" entry point to the then popular "integration". o It was actually seen as a "sweetener" to "induce" teachers to "accept these kids" when they came to visit. It is sick - but that was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70's, 80's and 90's. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical variable for successful inclusion). Now, reduced support by government to schools to become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is wrapped, I am sure, in "empowering schools to make their own decisions" but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA's but instead is: o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building school capacity for inclusion o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues (besides TA's) and is not just cost cutting. Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting partial enrolment. o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go over? o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more detail. (Over to you Bob). Kindest thoughts. Darrell From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie :-) From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 01:32:56 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 18:32:56 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7B05D896D76846ADA4C35D07A9700D4E@dell91> Hi Maureen Thank you for your wise words. Congratulations to Lauren how fun. I am hoping to get to Melbourne in the not too distant future and would love to catch up will stay in touch. Sarah's job is wonderful she is very happy, had many different people supporting and I am pretty sure she is training them. I love the volunteer stuff that Lauren is doing maybe when we come down we can catch up with Lauren on how she started and any tips. You too stay warm Alan recently went to Bendigo and said he didn't see the sun for a week, is cold here but beautiful blue skies. One of the reasons I left Melbourne town. I do miss the restaurants. Cheers and Hug Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:40 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: Swine flu Hi Jane/Gina and all Jane, I agree with "go with your instincts." Over 35 years of being a parent, I can recall many times I have gone with my gut feelings around my children and been right! (A few wrongs too, but more rights!) Not just decisions around Lauren, but the others as well. Mum's have amazing instincts - My husband is often amazed at how I can hone in on a suspicion that something isn't quite right. It must be something we are given with our babies. Jane, I have been wondering how Sarah has got along with her job? Is it still working out? Some positive news from our place around Lauren Next week (Wed) she is being rewarded for her 1000 hours of voluntary work at ACMI. There is to be a presentation by the CEO and she will be given a certificate and a gift voucher to the value of $200 to restaurants in Federation Square. She has people lined up who want to dine out with her!! So, we are most proud of her achievements and so are the staff at ACMI. Stay warm Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: Family Voices To: familyvoices at inpress..pledgonline.com Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 8:05 AM Subject: FV: Swine flu Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 03:12:13 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 20:12:13 +1000 Subject: FV: Swine flu References: <7B05D896D76846ADA4C35D07A9700D4E@dell91> Message-ID: <85F946C26F88476BAFE663FE01DEC30F@D8XYGK1S> Can't wait to catch up. Please give me a few days notice so I can get organised!! Skies are blue here but OH SO chilly. The best part about Melbourne's winter is that it never rains (any more) and blue skies and cold weather make a great combination for we golfers!! Cheers and hugs back - Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: Family Voices To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 6:32 PM Subject: Re: FV: Swine flu Hi Maureen Thank you for your wise words. Congratulations to Lauren how fun. I am hoping to get to Melbourne in the not too distant future and would love to catch up will stay in touch. Sarah's job is wonderful she is very happy, had many different people supporting and I am pretty sure she is training them. I love the volunteer stuff that Lauren is doing maybe when we come down we can catch up with Lauren on how she started and any tips. You too stay warm Alan recently went to Bendigo and said he didn't see the sun for a week, is cold here but beautiful blue skies. One of the reasons I left Melbourne town. I do miss the restaurants. Cheers and Hug Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:40 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: Swine flu Hi Jane/Gina and all Jane, I agree with "go with your instincts." Over 35 years of being a parent, I can recall many times I have gone with my gut feelings around my children and been right! (A few wrongs too, but more rights!) Not just decisions around Lauren, but the others as well. Mum's have amazing instincts - My husband is often amazed at how I can hone in on a suspicion that something isn't quite right. It must be something we are given with our babies. Jane, I have been wondering how Sarah has got along with her job? Is it still working out? Some positive news from our place around Lauren Next week (Wed) she is being rewarded for her 1000 hours of voluntary work at ACMI. There is to be a presentation by the CEO and she will be given a certificate and a gift voucher to the value of $200 to restaurants in Federation Square. She has people lined up who want to dine out with her!! So, we are most proud of her achievements and so are the staff at ACMI. Stay warm Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: Family Voices To: familyvoices at inpress..pledgonline.com Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 8:05 AM Subject: FV: Swine flu Hello FV Head turning over and over so thought would go to the people I respect so much. I have kept Sarah home from school this week so far through lots of feedback and I suppose gut instinct. She is in the high risk category as are many people with disabilities. Ie respiratory complications and no meat on the bones to combat illness. She has been leading a normal life in every other aspect ie going to work which is going great two afternoons per week out to dinner last night with social group. Remembering that there would have been 40 people max at pub and not all at one time. She is healthy at the moment, I have rung the health department who say all the precautionary measures to take, I suppose I am not confident with the school am I being over paranoid or not. Do you think it would be fair and can I trust them to approach them about her timetable and how they can keep her at the lowest possible risk? Life has to go on I totally acknowledge that but am I throwing her in to the unprotected pool?? Also I need to work and feel conflicted over that. I would really appreciate people thoughts and the decisions they are making. I have asked Sarah and she is quite happy being at home in no rush to head back to school. Darell are you still out there? I have quite a few things going on here re ed qld with families I support would really like to pick your wonderful mind sometime. Hope everyone is well, happy and enjoying snuggling up. Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 05:07:08 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 20:07:08 +0800 Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes In-Reply-To: <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <040F135C-9A08-4344-A8AD-8B04C78661EA@bigpond.com> Message-ID: <001301ca15c5$48b0fe20$da12fa60$@net.au> What a smoking hot email...well done, ladies. I?m forwarding to my boss! Jaquie From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:47 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: Research on Segregation Outcomes FROM: Gina Wilson-Burns ______________________________________ Oh, I did have another question to throw out there. Might be a Darrell job too. Can anyone direct me to research into segregated ed outcomes where showing there is no real benefit in segregation that I can pass on to a journo on The Australian. We have her ear at the moment and she is keen to follow up on different issues around educating kids with disabilities, lack of 'appropriate' supports etc My girlfriend and I sent through some comments (below) email after thefollowingarticle appeared in their paper... I think The Aust is starting with a follow up interview with my friend (Anita, you will recognise it as Fiona) If you're having trouble viewing this article, click here to view it in your browser faye, faye galbraith ( fayegalbraith at optusnet.com.au) thought you might find this article from interesting: Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' | August 04, 2009 From: The Australian b THE number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that give schools extra money for students with disabilities. A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads. The largest growth is in students with psychological conditions such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. Click here to read the full article on the website Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25877360-5006784,00.html ... Excerpt of email to The Australian I have a 14 yo boy with severe physical disability. He uses a powerchair for mobility, cant sit, stand, walk, dress, toilet independently. Hes always been in mainstream schools as I cant see the relevance of a special school just because he cant walk. He is just a member of our society and needs different supports to be included, be educated and eventually earn income and be a taxpayer. We moved from Sydneys northern beaches to Brisbane this year to get rid of our massive disability debt and live somewhere slightly cheaper. We were really, really lucky to find a small Catholic school which was happy to enrol our son and which tries to include every kid who wants to be included. That is real inclusion. I know we were lucky because we have been rejected by countless government, Catholic and independent schools in NSW merely because our son cant walk. In a NSW govt school last year my son received 5 hours support funding per day. We moved states and education systems and his disability must have disappeared, because he now receives 1 hour funding support per week. Even the school doesnt know how much he is entitled to, they only know how much they receive. There is no transparency. No funding portability across schools, states or education systems, therefore there is no freedom of choice in selecting schools for parents of students with disabilities. The funding criteria focuses on physical support needs or intellectual support needs. It doesnt begin to address the other supports that could be used, eg technology to enable greater student independence and interaction with learning. Over 9 years I have experienced first-hand how the education systems view students with disability and how inefficiently they use resources to educate them. Although we met some enthusiastic and caring teachers, principals and DET people, in general teachers, schools, the education systems, the teacher unions and Id say the universities teaching programs do not demonstrate the faintest understanding of how funding resources should equal targeted learning supports. To most of them funding = teacher aides. I disagree. Some students with disabilities benefit from teacher aides shadowing them. They are especially useful for physical inclusion and transitions in primary school. However, by middle school a student with a physical disability benefits FAR more from targeted learning support via technology. I am talking laptops and relevant software here, nothing exotic. Incidentally every other student benefits from the same technology. Its just that students with physical disability depend on this form of learning technology to independently and actively participate in their school curriculum and learning. Example 1: spend $20K p.a on a teachers aide to interpret what a SWD wants/means, or for a similar amount fund the purchase of an eye gaze system which will enable years of the student having the ability to communicate his choices and interpretations, not someone elses. Example 2: have a teachers aide constantly sitting with an SWD to write down teacher notes, or the students answers to maths problems. Or supply a laptop and the right software for the student to work independently, and a digital pen for the teachers notes to be transmitted to the students laptop or onto USB for later downloading. I have not encountered a school or disability support consultant in any education system who has researched what targeted learning supports can be matched to students needs. We have done all this research ourselves, and at my sons current school personally funded the laptop etc. NAPLAN which administers national assessments dont even have online assessments and they dont report on educational outcomes of students with disabilities, although they and the states do report on indigenous learning outcomes. Perhaps students with disability are viewed as not disadvantaged? I am happy to chat with you about this, and can probably find some other parents who are willing to express their views publicly. Here is a sample of recent parent views from my e-support group: It is a sad state of affairs when you have to define people by their deficiencies rather than seeing their potential and working hard to let them see it too. I know there are tonnes of kids with issues but believe good classroom strategies will eliminate many of them. Much of the problem lies in the fact these 'diagnosis' for funding then get passed on to teachers as "FACTS" and therefore the teachers stop striving for those students because they now have a LABEL to excuse them from reaching their potential. Parents need to be encouraged to aim high for their kids - teachers should be expected to. Labels and money won't do a thing unless the expectation to learn is there. For us... Independence is at the heart of our every dream & decision - regardless of the level of physical or emotional disability or illness, this might look different for our child to another, eg it might be the freedom from boring adults, it might be accessing work independently via technology, it might be speaking up without prompting... but it absolutely is paramount in all decisions and strategies we help put in place. I wish there was some kind of reward system where these kids with emotional or behavioural disorders might be identified or diagnosed as needing additional assistance but a lump sum payment gets made to the school once they have managed to get them achieving targetted outcomes - wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the successes of these kids and see funding forthcoming to allow the school to do even better and reach more kids. I know there are some schools and parents who get quite selfish with funding and would just keep happily taking it even if it wasn't trulywarranted - but I guess that is something that occurs in every aspect of society so can't see that changing in a hurry. Speaking purely from an SSP perspective, I was constantly reminded at Js IEPs to be as negative as possible in respect of his abilities & highlight always what he couldnt do. That was the only way the school could obtain extra finding for an additional teachers aide to help between 3 classrooms with students who were intubated , needed frequent toileting etc etc . What a sad indictment of the public school system. Bear in mind that at Js SSP 2000-2008) there were no therapists employed by DADHC /DOCS from 2004 onwards due to a change in political/geographical boundaries. So 24 of the most severely disabled kids in society had to augment their disabilities just to ensure that there was 1 teacher & 1 aide for every 6 students plus 1 extra over the whole 24 students ! No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 18:01:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1735 bytes Desc: not available URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 05:07:09 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 20:07:09 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> Message-ID: <001901ca15c5$490b7a30$db226e90$@net.au> I think you are on the money Gina...I think the need for personal care should be kept separate to the need for support in class in terms of accessing the curriculum. It seems to me that they can sound reasonable when they say 2, or 20 or whatever it is hours per week of aide time. However, wouldn't it make them see how nuts that is if they had to say...we will give this four year old child support for two of the 10 times a week they use the toilet at school each week and the rest of the time we expect that either the other four year old kids will take him or that the teacher leave the class unsupervised... I'm just watching The Black Balloon with my high school teaching students...they are enjoying it! I know it isn't everyone's story, but i love this movie.. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:35 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi Jane/Jac This is an interesting one. I don't have any fully resolved thoughts on this but think it would/could make it quite difficult for Prep schools to see the light and understand they can, in many cases, include many kids without additional funding. The problem would be the Preps could push kids back segregated setting stating 'more support'. But, take a child like Mac, he needed to be fed, changed, tube fed, moved and then any modifications required, and in many cases adult assistance, for him to access the same games/work as any of the other kids is on top of that. There is no possible way that 2 hours a week can do that. One feed could take one hour. Then he could choke, gag, vomit etc and need adult intervention to make sure he was ok. You couldn't leave him without close adult supervision between the ages of 2-4 because of the high risk of choking - it is hard to believe anyone took him Prep kids are not able to be as useful as peer support as they are so young and learning how to exist independently themselves. Some will be ok, but there is a big difference I think in prep (assuming it is the same as our Pre-School) to even another year on in Kindergarten with the 6yo kids is vast. That being said, I think there is a need to distinguish between personal care requirements (feeding, toileting, cleaning, positioning/moving) and educational support requirements. Personal care must not be negotiable and should be funded and performed by an adult. In highschool I think peers could be trained to do moving/positioning in two person lifts or hoists if they chose to do so. Not sure how DET would view this, but if these are kids who want to be mates then part of being a friend is sharing the load (literally). Most teenagers don't require anywhere near the positioning issues young kids do so it does get easier I am sure. Mac pretty much has full time aide support in Kindergarten and Mac's main aide support staff are great at understanding they need to focus on the modifications and access to curriculum, but any fillin aides get sooooo caught up in the whole personal care stuff and don't do any of the curriculum stuff. We'll get there in time. The school has just recently implemented a new lunchtime play arrangement where the teacher on duty is responsible for Mac but the senior kids are his 'muscle' in that they are responsible for moving his wheelchair, playing with him etc. There is a group of 'strong willed' seniors who are pretty determined to have control of him so the school sees this as a way to see if there are other kids who want a chance and can then roster them into a role of responsibility to kind of 'thwart' the power plays that would otherwise go on. Mac doesn't care, he seems to love not being around adults LOL. I would be interested to know what their background to this 'decree' is. I worry that by not providing appropriate supports to help parents feel comfortable choosing a mainstream environment they will work on the 'fear factor' and push them to segregation by suggesting there is more support or funding. That is the scary bit as far as I can see it. I might have some more to say, but as I am still not feeling 100% will leave it at that and ponder some more. Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:26 AM, Family Voices wrote: Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 18:01:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 05:07:10 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 20:07:10 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au> <00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Message-ID: <006c01ca15c5$66a6d2b0$33f47810$@net.au> Gina that is too funny..you wicked thing you.... Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 12:16 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Darrell As always your knowledge is amazing and comments fantastic. I think I will start using the language of "what support do you need" to the adults responsible for Mac's education etc rather than making it about him. ha ha, it makes me giggle just thinking about the reporting of REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Teacher's Deficiencies in providing Education Outcomes eg: Mrs T, Stage 1 Teacher Has difficulty identifying the core element of a lesson Unable to break down each topic of the day into 3 choice based options Does not have basic computer literacy skills to develop appropriate interactive lessons Is unaware how to offer both visual and auditory elements to classroom teaching Is afraid of technology and equipment which may assist learning... Funding Allocation: Mrs T requires the additional support of one untrained adult to help her meet her teaching obligations for three hours a day. Mrs T needs to undertake professional development in the following areas..... 1,2,3,4,5 Failure to achieve identified professional development outcomes will result in aforementioned supports being removed. Can't see me being the person in charge of funding in the future.... Gina On 05/08/2009, at 1:03 PM, Family Voices wrote: Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, Where to start: On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from "fruit time" to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most vulnerable. First issue on "new formula" is that we should never assume governments will ever "get" inclusion. The words are currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. Given this act of formula-izing support, as has been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this as nothing more or less than: o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher's reading assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child's entry to hospital?) o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing in the school's architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the child. Duuh. Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this-especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we didn't- did a huge review of the research up the 90's that is worthy starting point.) o TA's were first conceptualized as a "cheap" entry point to the then popular "integration". o It was actually seen as a "sweetener" to "induce" teachers to "accept these kids" when they came to visit. It is sick - but that was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70's, 80's and 90's. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical variable for successful inclusion). Now, reduced support by government to schools to become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is wrapped, I am sure, in "empowering schools to make their own decisions" but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA's but instead is: o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building school capacity for inclusion o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues (besides TA's) and is not just cost cutting. Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting partial enrolment. o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go over? o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more detail. (Over to you Bob). Kindest thoughts. Darrell From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 18:01:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 05:24:16 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 22:24:16 +1000 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: References: <000f01ca155a$f5b302f0$e11908d0$@net.au><00b401ca1579$571e4c70$055ae550$@com> Message-ID: <009601ca15c7$a6a84040$f3f8c0c0$@com> That gave me a good, hearty chuckle Gina. Thanks for that... J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:23 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Gina I love it. I said at a meeting on Monday a couple of times "I don't quite understand to me it doesn't seem like rocket science" Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 2:16 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Darrell As always your knowledge is amazing and comments fantastic. I think I will start using the language of "what support do you need" to the adults responsible for Mac's education etc rather than making it about him. ha ha, it makes me giggle just thinking about the reporting of REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Teacher's Deficiencies in providing Education Outcomes eg: Mrs T, Stage 1 Teacher Has difficulty identifying the core element of a lesson Unable to break down each topic of the day into 3 choice based options Does not have basic computer literacy skills to develop appropriate interactive lessons Is unaware how to offer both visual and auditory elements to classroom teaching Is afraid of technology and equipment which may assist learning... Funding Allocation: Mrs T requires the additional support of one untrained adult to help her meet her teaching obligations for three hours a day. Mrs T needs to undertake professional development in the following areas..... 1,2,3,4,5 Failure to achieve identified professional development outcomes will result in aforementioned supports being removed. Can't see me being the person in charge of funding in the future.... Gina On 05/08/2009, at 1:03 PM, Family Voices wrote: Hi Jane, Jaquie, all, Where to start: On health: Be safe. Germs are spread rapidly by humans. Just map the spread of swine flu from Sydney where it arrived by Qantas from North America. Schools are germ factories when 30+ bodies are crammed together sharing everything from "fruit time" to lunches to pencils, door handles and so on. There is something to be said for immunity developing from exposure but SF still has no vaccine so it is high risk and killing those most vulnerable. First issue on "new formula" is that we should never assume governments will ever "get" inclusion. The words are currently popular, so they are using them. When something else is popular they will use that. One should not read words to find out if something is good or not. As is old proverb-words do not cook rice. One should therefore read actions. This is called act validity. Given this act of formula-izing support, as has been the Queensland history (remember ascetainment?), we see this as nothing more or less than: o a newly revised formula for the distribution of resources o unchanged in that it converts SCHOOL and TEACHER perceived need into child need and then tries to measure the child using outdated and medical labels for what is supposed to be an educational issue. This alone is proof positive that it is stupid. Would the reverse ever hold water? (e.g. would the doctors accept a teacher's reading assessment as legitimate need analysis for a child's entry to hospital?) o It is, however even dumber because the old paradigm of special education eligibility was based on changing the child and thus measurement (no matter how misplaced) was rational (albeit not the medical assessment). HOWVER inclusion is based upon changing the setting so as to accommodate. Thus one must measure where the setting is weak in capacity. One can never find out what is missing in the school's architecture, attitude & skills by measuring the child. Duuh. Teacher aides are never needed by the child. Bold statement but think about it. Kids need friends, food (including brain food) and fun. Now a TA may HELP the teacher deliver this but s/he may equally get in the way. Read of the research on this-especially but not only Giangreco. (Bruce and his friends in Canada - Dick Sobsey who we met and heard on radio and Dreimanis who we didn't- did a huge review of the research up the 90's that is worthy starting point.) o TA's were first conceptualized as a "cheap" entry point to the then popular "integration". o It was actually seen as a "sweetener" to "induce" teachers to "accept these kids" when they came to visit. It is sick - but that was the thinking and explicated here in AASE during the 70's, 80's and 90's. (Maybe people are too young to know this and this history will surely be revised to deny it - but that was how it was seen (and I still think it drives the system focus-at least unconsciously-on aide time as critical..when it is not the critical variable for successful inclusion). Now, reduced support by government to schools to become inclusive is another matter. THIS is the core issue. It is wrapped, I am sure, in "empowering schools to make their own decisions" but is likely a cost cutting exercise. The upside may be that you would lobby that NO money is cut from the budget for TA's but instead is: o GIVEN to form a fund to support broader efforts to building school capacity for inclusion o Given directly to school for same. This would be a good move and prove that govt is sensitive to issues of broader issues (besides TA's) and is not just cost cutting. Another matter is the illegal act of suggesting partial enrolment. o This is not only against the law (e.g. DDA) but is mean spirited. Suggesting a stressed system should reduce costs by preying on its weakest members is evil. What would happen if we suggested that the top 10% are going to Uni anyway so we will save some dough and cut their enrollment to say 80%. How would that go over? o Again, Queensland Ed has a rep of being first to test the limits of discrimination laws and this is no different. o As I understand, asking parents to accept trial or partial placement is illegal. Assoc. Prof Jackson may respond in more detail. (Over to you Bob). Kindest thoughts. Darrell From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 7:26 AM To: familyvoices at inpress..pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress..pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4304 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4306 (20090804) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 5 20:00:06 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 13:00:06 +1000 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: <001901ca15c5$490b7a30$db226e90$@net.au> Message-ID: <7vle0s$d8fvi@ipmail03.adl6.internode.on.net> Jaqui We watched Black Balloon the other week too. It was not long after I did my 2 day Social Role Valorisation course so I was on high alert while watching it. I have adopted the mantra. monkey ears are not appropriate as everyday wear for teenagers. I loved the portrayal of the girl (Gemma Ward's character) - every teenage girl should aspire to be that girl. I loved the honesty of the dysfunctional family. Does it create great discussion amongst the kids or is it too in their face? Gina _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 10:07 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep I think you are on the money Gina...I think the need for personal care should be kept separate to the need for support in class in terms of accessing the curriculum. It seems to me that they can sound reasonable when they say 2, or 20 or whatever it is hours per week of aide time. However, wouldn't it make them see how nuts that is if they had to say...we will give this four year old child support for two of the 10 times a week they use the toilet at school each week and the rest of the time we expect that either the other four year old kids will take him or that the teacher leave the class unsupervised... I'm just watching The Black Balloon with my high school teaching students...they are enjoying it! I know it isn't everyone's story, but i love this movie.. Jaquie :-) From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:35 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi Jane/Jac This is an interesting one. I don't have any fully resolved thoughts on this but think it would/could make it quite difficult for Prep schools to see the light and understand they can, in many cases, include many kids without additional funding. The problem would be the Preps could push kids back segregated setting stating 'more support'. But, take a child like Mac, he needed to be fed, changed, tube fed, moved and then any modifications required, and in many cases adult assistance, for him to access the same games/work as any of the other kids is on top of that. There is no possible way that 2 hours a week can do that. One feed could take one hour. Then he could choke, gag, vomit etc and need adult intervention to make sure he was ok. You couldn't leave him without close adult supervision between the ages of 2-4 because of the high risk of choking - it is hard to believe anyone took him Prep kids are not able to be as useful as peer support as they are so young and learning how to exist independently themselves. Some will be ok, but there is a big difference I think in prep (assuming it is the same as our Pre-School) to even another year on in Kindergarten with the 6yo kids is vast. That being said, I think there is a need to distinguish between personal care requirements (feeding, toileting, cleaning, positioning/moving) and educational support requirements. Personal care must not be negotiable and should be funded and performed by an adult. In highschool I think peers could be trained to do moving/positioning in two person lifts or hoists if they chose to do so. Not sure how DET would view this, but if these are kids who want to be mates then part of being a friend is sharing the load (literally). Most teenagers don't require anywhere near the positioning issues young kids do so it does get easier I am sure. Mac pretty much has full time aide support in Kindergarten and Mac's main aide support staff are great at understanding they need to focus on the modifications and access to curriculum, but any fillin aides get sooooo caught up in the whole personal care stuff and don't do any of the curriculum stuff. We'll get there in time. The school has just recently implemented a new lunchtime play arrangement where the teacher on duty is responsible for Mac but the senior kids are his 'muscle' in that they are responsible for moving his wheelchair, playing with him etc. There is a group of 'strong willed' seniors who are pretty determined to have control of him so the school sees this as a way to see if there are other kids who want a chance and can then roster them into a role of responsibility to kind of 'thwart' the power plays that would otherwise go on. Mac doesn't care, he seems to love not being around adults LOL. I would be interested to know what their background to this 'decree' is. I worry that by not providing appropriate supports to help parents feel comfortable choosing a mainstream environment they will work on the 'fear factor' and push them to segregation by suggesting there is more support or funding. That is the scary bit as far as I can see it. I might have some more to say, but as I am still not feeling 100% will leave it at that and ponder some more. Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:26 AM, Family Voices wrote: Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie :-) From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 18:01:00 _____ I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter . We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 1951 of my spam emails to date. The Professional version does not have this message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Thu Aug 6 01:07:17 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 16:07:17 +0800 Subject: FV: prep In-Reply-To: <7vle0s$d8fvi@ipmail03.adl6.internode.on.net> References: <001901ca15c5$490b7a30$db226e90$@net.au> <7vle0s$d8fvi@ipmail03.adl6.internode.on.net> Message-ID: <000a01ca166c$eabffc50$c03ff4f0$@net.au> No, it was good, they laughed at all the right spots and I think it is quite a skilled movie in that it balances out the in your faceness of it...we position them up before they watch it that it is confronting...young people these days watch all kinds of horrific stuff so I think Black Balloon is mild in terms of shock value. The discussion has been really good.. so far when asked what could have made Tom's life better, what high school teachers could do....none of them said the family needed more respite...they said things like...well, other people's attitudes could have saved them a lot of pain....and there was so much pressure on Tom (internally) to try to make his family look normal ...when it wasn't....if they and everyone else had just accepted the difference and made it no big deal then life would have been much better...IN some ways we wanted them to be at the very least mindful of the kinds of challenges some families and especially some siblings might have, and to see how creating a healthy school and class culture to difference can...well....make a big difference... Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Thursday, 6 August 2009 11:00 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Jaqui We watched Black Balloon the other week too. It was not long after I did my 2 day Social Role Valorisation course so I was on high alert while watching it. I have adopted the mantra. monkey ears are not appropriate as everyday wear for teenagers. I loved the portrayal of the girl (Gemma Ward's character) - every teenage girl should aspire to be that girl. I loved the honesty of the dysfunctional family. Does it create great discussion amongst the kids or is it too in their face? Gina _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 10:07 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep I think you are on the money Gina...I think the need for personal care should be kept separate to the need for support in class in terms of accessing the curriculum. It seems to me that they can sound reasonable when they say 2, or 20 or whatever it is hours per week of aide time. However, wouldn't it make them see how nuts that is if they had to say...we will give this four year old child support for two of the 10 times a week they use the toilet at school each week and the rest of the time we expect that either the other four year old kids will take him or that the teacher leave the class unsupervised... I'm just watching The Black Balloon with my high school teaching students...they are enjoying it! I know it isn't everyone's story, but i love this movie.. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 9:35 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: prep Hi Jane/Jac This is an interesting one. I don't have any fully resolved thoughts on this but think it would/could make it quite difficult for Prep schools to see the light and understand they can, in many cases, include many kids without additional funding. The problem would be the Preps could push kids back segregated setting stating 'more support'. But, take a child like Mac, he needed to be fed, changed, tube fed, moved and then any modifications required, and in many cases adult assistance, for him to access the same games/work as any of the other kids is on top of that. There is no possible way that 2 hours a week can do that. One feed could take one hour. Then he could choke, gag, vomit etc and need adult intervention to make sure he was ok. You couldn't leave him without close adult supervision between the ages of 2-4 because of the high risk of choking - it is hard to believe anyone took him Prep kids are not able to be as useful as peer support as they are so young and learning how to exist independently themselves. Some will be ok, but there is a big difference I think in prep (assuming it is the same as our Pre-School) to even another year on in Kindergarten with the 6yo kids is vast. That being said, I think there is a need to distinguish between personal care requirements (feeding, toileting, cleaning, positioning/moving) and educational support requirements. Personal care must not be negotiable and should be funded and performed by an adult. In highschool I think peers could be trained to do moving/positioning in two person lifts or hoists if they chose to do so. Not sure how DET would view this, but if these are kids who want to be mates then part of being a friend is sharing the load (literally). Most teenagers don't require anywhere near the positioning issues young kids do so it does get easier I am sure. Mac pretty much has full time aide support in Kindergarten and Mac's main aide support staff are great at understanding they need to focus on the modifications and access to curriculum, but any fillin aides get sooooo caught up in the whole personal care stuff and don't do any of the curriculum stuff. We'll get there in time. The school has just recently implemented a new lunchtime play arrangement where the teacher on duty is responsible for Mac but the senior kids are his 'muscle' in that they are responsible for moving his wheelchair, playing with him etc. There is a group of 'strong willed' seniors who are pretty determined to have control of him so the school sees this as a way to see if there are other kids who want a chance and can then roster them into a role of responsibility to kind of 'thwart' the power plays that would otherwise go on. Mac doesn't care, he seems to love not being around adults LOL. I would be interested to know what their background to this 'decree' is. I worry that by not providing appropriate supports to help parents feel comfortable choosing a mainstream environment they will work on the 'fear factor' and push them to segregation by suggesting there is more support or funding. That is the scary bit as far as I can see it. I might have some more to say, but as I am still not feeling 100% will leave it at that and ponder some more. Gina On 05/08/2009, at 9:26 AM, Family Voices wrote: Hi again Darrell will have some good thoughts on this one... The thing which I have really focussed on since Alberta is this issue of support and what it looks like. I really see now that one of the barriers to inclusion is our simplistic view of what support should look like,...ie paid one on one support. It is only when we unpack more specifically what support each individual needs that we get a more accurate picture. For example, when Eli was at school (and this is no criticism..his school were fully up for including him and did a good job) the only thing we all thought he needed was a full time aide. In retrospect he didn't need that at all. He did need personal care support, but as he grew older he needed his aide less and what was more useful to him was help modifying the curriculum. By the last year of school with his toughbook, he was concentrating on his work and self managing for long periods of time. I am not sure how this helps, other than to say as parents I don't think we do a great job of being very clear about what exactly our child needs. As long as we all think in terms of paid support hours, thats all that will be on the table and there will be ongoing conflict depending on who is in govt on how many of those we get. I wonder if we start framing this in terms of what our kids actually need if we will get further...it is harder to argue with that. I am thinking back to Eli's Community Living application which I mentioned in my last email...if we had applied for hours of paid support, we were told the application would have been successful. Because we applied for what Eli actually needs...well they couldn't cope with real life challenges which don't involve paid one on one....I find that interesting. Transport is another one...I see access to everything from a decent wheelchair to a vehicle to put it in as being ridiculously difficult....and yet this is one thing which will enable the community connection stuff the system loves to go on and on and on about....yet seems to not understand how to support...it offends me deeply that we live in Australia and that there are people who need wheelchairs but don't get funded for them (yep, Eli was one of those...) Looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this one. Jaquie J From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 6:49 AM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: prep Hi Is me again. People thoughts?? I was at a meeting with Ed Qld support for children with disabilities in prep was described as follows. Before August 8 year before Prep start, the child must have diagnosis of a Ed Qld disabilities Physical, Speech & Language, ASD, Hearing, Intellectual. If they have diagnosis they will be able to get 2 hours aide support a week. That's it from Central and Treasury, is then up to school if they have any support to put in and Prep staff to support also the families are involved in decision making and possible part time enrollment was encouraged. I know the issues and totally agree around aide time,/funding to be the end all discussion and focus not a good place to start and I agree this is not a good path to travel but I am shocked at this black and white formula. I realize FV people are around our wonderful country and this is a Qld possible policy but was interested in FVs thoughts. Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.12970 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 05:57:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.43/2281 - Release Date: 08/04/09 18:01:00 _____ I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter . We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 1951 of my spam emails to date. The Professional version does not have this message. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.45/2284 - Release Date: 08/05/09 18:23:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 12 04:32:44 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:32:44 +1000 Subject: FV: Fw: Australian Story Message-ID: Hi everyone Some of you may have seen this story on Australian Story, and for those who missed it, maybe you might like to connect to the website and have a look A lovely inclusive example. > http://www.abc.net.au/austory/ Maureen > > > From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 12 22:24:42 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:24:42 +1000 Subject: FV: AACL newsletter Message-ID: Hi everyone, Thought you might be interested to see the article on our Canadian experience in the AACL Connections publication. Warm regards Catherine Hogan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ConnectionsMay09.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 1457058 bytes Desc: ConnectionsMay09.pdf URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Sat Aug 15 03:13:28 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:13:28 +1000 Subject: FV: AACL newsletter In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <0B7850DE5E5A4ACEA877284A8EFB38A3@dell91> Hi Catherine Thank you for the publication. How is your sister.? Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 _____ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 3:25 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: AACL newsletter Hi everyone, Thought you might be interested to see the article on our Canadian experience in the AACL Connections publication. Warm regards Catherine Hogan E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.13050 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.13050 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Sun Aug 16 16:08:56 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:08:56 +1000 Subject: FV: AACL newsletter In-Reply-To: <0B7850DE5E5A4ACEA877284A8EFB38A3@dell91> References: <0B7850DE5E5A4ACEA877284A8EFB38A3@dell91> Message-ID: Hi Jane, Margaret is great....the rest of us are flagging a bit, but so far so good. Had our first response re our advert for a live in flat mate/companion. Will be meeting with them early next week to suss them out. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Regards, Catherine From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Saturday, 15 August 2009 8:13 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: Re: FV: AACL newsletter Hi Catherine Thank you for the publication. How is your sister.? Regards Jane Jane Warner/Hudson 07 46714737 ________________________________ From: familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com [mailto:familyvoices-bounces at inpress.pledgonline.com] On Behalf Of Family Voices Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 3:25 PM To: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Subject: FV: AACL newsletter Hi everyone, Thought you might be interested to see the article on our Canadian experience in the AACL Connections publication. Warm regards Catherine Hogan E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.13050 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386) Database version: 5.13050 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Tue Aug 18 17:15:36 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:45:36 +0930 Subject: FV: Personalised residential supports References: Message-ID: Hi Canadian travelling cousins and others who look in on the list, Just in case you haven't all seen this already I thought I'd share this stuff from Errol Cocks and Ross Boaden which is exploring how people can be supported to have highly personalised support in the places they live. Some terrific stuff and lovely to have this documented. Best wishes to you all, Ross -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: PRS Guide to decision-making.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 449501 bytes Desc: PRS Guide to decision-making.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: FINAL PRS REPORT.PDF Type: application/octet-stream Size: 200057 bytes Desc: FINAL PRS REPORT.PDF URL: From familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com Wed Aug 19 15:56:21 2009 From: familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com (Family Voices) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:26:21 +0930 Subject: FV: Personalised residential supports In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1d4342460908191556y394711b5y844c3124a2a25960@mail.gmail.com> Hallo Ross, Thanks for these documents I will find them very useful. I will have some trouble adding them to my files but I am sure I will find space. Regards, Brenda. On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 9:45 AM, Family Voices < familyvoices at inpress.pledgonline.com> wrote: > Hi Canadian travelling cousins and others who look in on the list, > > Just in case you haven't all seen this already I thought I'd share this > stuff from Errol Cocks and Ross Boaden which is exploring how people can > be supported to have highly personalised support in the places they > live. Some terrific stuff and lovely to have this documented. > > Best wishes to you all, Ross > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: