beckamojo

Can anyone please tell me what the education is like in Victoria, especially special needs? We would like to settle there but are worried about taking our 10 year old son out of his special school in the UK. He is our only reason for not hopping onto a plane today. Any answers would help

quoll

First of all, have you got a visa? Having one member of the family with a disability that requires a special school education could be a problem with respect to passing the medicals. If there is a likelihood that the person will cost the Australian tax payer a lot of money then it is more than likely that their application would be turned down. It is easier to get a temporary visa to come here (because you/your employer will be responsible for all costs) but then if you try and get PR you still have to go through the medicals again and then they become more concerned about cost to the tax payer - just saying that you are here and the child has settled well doesnt cut any ice with them.

Victoria was in the vanguard of inclusive education about 15 years ago and it closed many of its special schools, preferring to support children with disabilities in mainstream classes. I think they still have a sort of needs assessment which determines just how much support a child will get (usually translated into teacher aide time but can also include other therapeutic interventions). There are still a few special schools but they tend to be for children who have the highest level of needs or specific impairments. The criteria for getting additional support seem to undergo revision every now and again and my reading of them was that they were quite rigorous and amongst the hardest of all the states to get acceptance for disability funding especially for intellectual disabilities and pervasive developmental disorders.

If you do get a visa and do come, be sure to bring all psych reports (IQ tests, adaptive behaviours assessment, skill levels) therapy reports, IEPs (individual educational plans), formal diagnosis statement etc and make sure they are all current - it saves a lot of time having to have them done again.

The handbook is here http://www.education.vic.gov.au/heal...guidelines.htm hope that will give you an idea about what is available.

Good luck!

beckamojo

Thanks for all the useful information, we had not considered that his problems might be a burden on the economy. Interestingly his problems stem from a car accident that occurred when he was a baby and there is a legal case continuing which will pay for his adult life. However I do get the point of what you say and he was always going to be the biggest stumbling block. He is in a special school here and they are so great, but with the credit crunch etc etc we were looking to better our lifestyle, Victoria is where friends of our are now so it seemed as good a place as any to start.

Maybe its back to the drawing board

quoll

The best thing you can do is to talk to a migration agent about your son's prospects. The one that seems to be recommended for medical issues is George Lombard (no knowledge of the chap personally other than that he comes highly recommended as the man who knows - well, his team does). The disability issue is one that immigration are very clear about and there are agents who think they can subvert by getting people here on a temporary visa and then hoping that immigration will give them permanency just because they are here - I have dealt with a family who did just that and had to go home.

You wont know until you check it out - I didnt mean to put you off, just point you in the direction you may have to travel. If you do come to Aus, at least I can vouch for the special schools in ACT (which isnt Victoria of course) - we have some good ones!

flip

I've friends whose kids are blind or have learning difficulties and they're integrated well into the mainstream schools which seems to be the norm but there are special schools.

There was a newspaper article recently which complained that people were having to travel great distances for the right special schools though (indicating they may be few or far between) so if you are able to get a visa it would be worth finding a school which meets your needs and has a vacancy and deciding whether the location is somewhere you'd like to live.

Good luck, you have a huge journey ahead of you but hopefully something wonderful at the end.

Carolyn

beckamojo

Thank you for the replies. Here in the UK my son was failing in mainstream school because their methods of teaching did not work for him. He is physically fine, its his learning and understanding as he is brain injured, not severely but enough to keep him behind. He is ten tomorrow and is more like 6 in his wishes for toys and clothes etc. His self esteem was rock bottom in mainstream schools and he is now a much happier boy and I have to say our only problem in respect of a big move. We did look at NZ but they have only just recognized dyslexia as a condition so we stood no chance in terms of schooling for our son. We really want to better our lifestyle but are so afraid of making a mistake and burning our bridges at school.

flip

It's so difficult to write this with the correct mixture of support and reserve as we don't have first hand experience of your situation.

However in my daughter's class there are a couple of kids with learning difficulties - one through a brain injury who is quite charming but apparently struggles and another through undetected allergies at birth. Among our friends we have a number who see speech pathologists (though dyslexia seems more rare here), have trouble with reading or have more severe disabilities or weak academic, social or sporting skills.

It seems that many more children are integrated over here than would have been the case in the UK and that pastoral care at most schools ensures that the kids often may know that someone has some issue but that if they're good fun, bright, good at sport, or are just good to be with, then they will be accepted.

The other thing that often makes things easier is that it is a regular occurence that kids are kept back a year now and again if they are struggling to meet the academic standard so age too is not an issue in class. My daughter has good friends more than 12 months older and 12 months younger in the same class. They also have many composite classes where grades are mixed so kids are often more accepting and work at different levels within the same class which may work for your son.

Some schools are not so good at the pastoral side of things so if you did think you may try mainstream school for him you would have to check all the schools out carefully - of course you would anyway.

Obviously none of us can give advice on your son's situation except perhaps the educational specialists but it may be worth your investigating the prospect of education here further if a visa is possible.