EDUCATION CRISIS - Special needs being ignored | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Schools are in crisis as the Government is failing to provide resources for children with special education needs, Northland principals say.

Tai Tokerau Principals' Association president Pat Newman says Northland is losing out because support funding is population-based rather than needs-based.

"We are literally in a crisis situation here," he said.

An example of needs not being met is a pupil who is unable to go to the toilet herself and does not get a fulltime teacher aide.

Resource teachers of learning and behaviour (RTLB) who co-ordinate and work alongside teacher aides are forced to cope with teacher to student ratios of 1:720.

One Northland principal said they hadn't had a speech and language therapist at school this year, despite having several students who qualified for the therapist's help.

Ministry of Education spokesman Iain Butler said spending on special education nationally had increased by 50 per cent since 1989 and Northland had benefited from that.

"The Ministry of Education has worked with the Tai Tokerau Principals' Association on the delivery of behaviour services to ensure these are working as effectively as possible.

"This year, we have an initiative in place to improve the support given to Tai Tokerau schools with higher than usual numbers of special needs students, worth $300,000 over three years."

Schools could also obtain funding from an Interim Response Fund for behavioural issues.

Northland's population of just under 150,000 gives it support for just 68 students by the Supplementary Learning Support programme - a government fund for children with specific and ongoing special needs.

"The problem is, we have huge numbers of students, many from low socio-economic backgrounds, who all need that support," Mr Newman said.

"We've already got another 69 students who meet the criteria for that support but can't get it and are sitting on a waiting list. So what happens to them?"

Mr Newman said the behaviour that warranted the label "special education" was broader than many people thought and included everything from a 5-year-old struggling to form words right up to severe attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD).

The Tai Tokerau Principals' Association recently redefined what low-, medium- and high-level behaviour needs meant, as Northland schools saw a much greater span of and more extreme behaviour other regions did not have, Mr Newman said.

What warranted a label of "high-level behaviour needs" in a school elsewhere in the country, would be small stuff in many Northland schools.

"A student who throws a chair in class would be classed as having high-level behaviour needs in most regions in New Zealand, and would receive immediate support.

"If a student in Northland occasionally throws a chair in class, that child is having low-level behaviour needs, because in the spectrum of behaviour we see, it's not the worst."

The principals' association wants all special education resources funded according to need, money for a teacher aide in every low-decile classroom in Northland and a restructure of the special-ed resources application process.

"We're simply asking for the resources our children are entitled to.

"If we don't help these students now, we risk the future of our students and the region."