Ending segregated education for students with a disability has split the disability royal commission.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The inquiry's final 12-volume report with 222 recommendations was released on Friday.
However, the six commissioners were unable to agree on a key issue of phasing out segregation or special schools.
Commissioners Barbara Bennett, Rhonda Galbally, and Alastair McEwin said the continued maintenance or expansion of segregated education was incompatible with inclusivity and the rights of students with a disability.
"In our view, segregated education stems from, and contributes to, the devaluing of people with disability, which is a root cause of the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation people with disability experience in education and beyond," they said.
Dr Galbally and Dr McEwin both live with a disability.
The trio recommended a transition to phasing out special education over three decades.
No new special schools should be built, or segregated classes or units within schools be introduced from 2025, they recommended.
This would achieve the goal of no students with a disability in segregated education by 2052.
But chair Ronald Sackville and commissioners Andrea Mason and John Ryan did not share the view it was appropriate or necessary to phase out special schools to support inclusive education.
"Non-mainstream schools (as we prefer to describe them) primarily enrolling students with complex support needs should not and need not operate in a manner that isolates those students from their peers," they said.
They said considering the vast majority of students with disabilities attended mainstream schools, the important medium-to-long-term challenge was overcoming the numerous barriers to receiving an inclusive education in mainstream settings.
In a statement, Down Syndrome Australia said it was disappointed a consensus couldn't be reached among the commissioners.
"If we are to end discrimination against people with disability, the government must act to end segregation," chief executive Darryl Steff said.
"That can start with a commitment to end separate workplaces and special schools."
Australian Associated Press
