Adapted from: Setting up for a Successful School Year in 2024 – PEPTalk Autumn 2024 – Education

Many families in contact with the ACD Tas team at this time of year are talking about how it’s nearly time for their children to return to school and how busy they are getting ready. Some have already bought new uniforms and stationery, knowing that their children need to be familiarised with their student gear and equipment before the school year begins and some are seeking to connect with others for ideas on how to start the school year positively.  

Are you and your family ready? Preparing a child with disability for the new school year requires thoughtful planning, collaboration and excellent communication with educators and the child and set up of a safe and supportive team and environments. Identifying the unique needs of your child and who can report on or relay these needs and who will meet these needs is essential to getting off to a good start. Talk to your child before anyone, and work out if they are worried about going to school and if they are, what will remove their anxiety, fear, or uncertainty and give them more confidence?

ACD Tas has collated some information and tips below to assist families to prepare for a successful school year.

Organise to visit the school before the start of Term 1

In some cases, this will mean before the end of the final term of the previous year. Have a walk around the school grounds during the January school holidays as sometimes that long break means that children forget where things are and what they look like, and this helps to reduce anxiety. Talk to your child and find out what they are worried about and work out what would remove their anxiety, fear, uncertainty and give them more confidence?

As well as physically attending the school and relevant classroom, you can contact the school to ask for a social story or photos of the new school and relevant classroom/s and teachers. A social story uses unique knowledge of a child’s needs and best communication method and the development of a short story to give them specific information to prepare them for a new situation. If you or the school have relevant photos,  a social   story can be developed by sticking these images on a large piece of cardboard, or on flash cards or in a scrapbook (something that is accessible for the child) and used  as regularly as required and as a fun reminder and activity to show them what they can expect to happen at school.

Arranging and attending a meeting with your child’s year-level leader or coordinator, support teacher and main teacher as early as possible in the new year is always  beneficial – sometimes it’s possible to arrange this for when teachers have returned to school but before students commence – so that you can share any of your concerns with them and remind them of your child’s needs. Your child could also participate in this meeting and share their thoughts and concerns.

Gather your support team.

Prepare your support team for the year ahead, it will help to start by writing a list of all those involved in providing a relevant support, service and/or therapy to your child and their contact details. There’s a printable resource under GET STARTED on the Your Network of support page that will help.

It is helpful for you to organise a meeting with   key people working to support your child’s development and goals, both at school and outside school.  These meetings are often called Care Team Meetings. At such a meeting, everyone can share how they will or are supporting the child and any plans, reports, concerns, or ideas they have that will assist the child to participate at school.  The purpose of any team meeting about a student in education should be to focus on positive education engagement, experiences and outcomes, sharing needed information and collaborating for this purpose and developing a connected team who will commit to listen to each other, effectively work together, and to respect each other’s ideas, roles and involvement. Establishing agreement on who, how and when the meetings will take place and the purpose of the meetings can be an effective tool to assist your child’s education.

With modern technology, it may not be necessary for everyone to attend in person (someone interstate can participate by video conferencing from home or office using virtual meeting room technology, such as Zoom or Teams). ACD Tas members can book and use the CommuniCloud-sponsored member virtual meeting room for free.

Make sure your Educators have an understanding of your child and their Disability.

Although most children with disability attend mainstream schools and most teachers will have some knowledge of many types of disability, there is no guarantee that every teacher will know about and have experience with your child and the specifics of their disability.

Sometimes, a teacher may not have quite the level of knowledge needed to support a child’s individual education needs. However, most teachers are keen to learn as much as they can about a child’s disability, so they can assist their learning, and they will rely on you to pass on your expert knowledge and any previous reports, and useful tips to facilitate this.

You may choose to ask for assistance from your child’s allied health team such as their physiotherapist, psychologist, occupational therapist, or speech pathologist. There may also be specialist consultants available in schools who can support teachers in their role.

If you are linked to an organisation with specialist disability knowledge, they may be able to offer further training, advice, or support. Ensuring that everyone knows and understands a child’s needs and that meeting them is a team responsibility.

Parents and carers have a vital role to play in a child’s education, as holders of expert knowledge and understanding of their child/ren. It is essential that you are part of your child’s education team. Your child is unique, they may share a diagnosis or some characteristics with others, but every child is different in many ways and will require an education that is designed to meet their individual needs.

Before the year begins, prepare a one-page profile of your child to give to relevant staff and professionals who have contact with your child. This will be a quick reference sheet that reminds them of any important information about your child and strategies that work for your child. This can then be updated as needed and attached to your child’s Learning plan. You will find an example of a ‘Student Profile’ at the link provided below).

An individual Learning Plan will be developed, with your help, to identify goals for teaching and learning.

Educational adjustments will be determined and made to your child’s teaching and learning program to help them to participate and reach their potential at school. Specialist staff, equipment or technology may be assessed as needed and utilised.

Being a part of the Learning Plan Development

For some families, being handed a draft Learning Plan prepared by your child’s educators and being asked, ‘What do you think?’ and ‘Can you please sign it if you are happy with it?’ is their first experience with this important education inclusion and participation tool. If this happens to you, take a deep breath, and prepare to respond calmly. Let the person know that your understanding is that it is an education policy to involve parents and carers in this important document and that you look forward to collaborating with them and being involved. Whether this is your experience or not, ask relevant educators for any information about Learning Plans in general as well as information that is specific to your child’s Learning plan and its development, such as who is or can be involved and what your role is. Seek information to understand the Learning Plan process, such as how will it be developed, and when it will be reviewed and updated. Do not be daunted by the length of the Learning plan or how formal the process is, as you gain experience with this process and collaborate with educators, you will grow in confidence.

A Learning Plan for children is a plan that lays out the accommodation supports your child, requires and what will be done to make sure they have the same access to an education as all children of their age and gain the assistance they need to reach their education potential.  Think of a Learning Plan as a set of written target skills that align with a set of required supports that will give a child an equal opportunity to realistically develop in their education setting. Goals will be set and achieve educational goals and expand their skills over time.

The key objectives in any Learning Plan are to plan to achieve the SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Limited). These goals should be focused and relevant to what skills and/or supports your child needs right now. They should be objectively measurable, so you and the school staff know if progress is being made and if there should be a review of progress and an amendment to the SMART goals and strategies for achieving them.  If a SMART Goal is well structured, but the aim was not fully met, then that does not always mean the goal is not realistic, just that something needs to be added and changed or done differently before being reviewed again.

Another tip – don’t assume that everyone involved in the development of a Learning Plan has the right skill set, make sure to ask questions to get the best Learning Plan developed for your child. A parent told us that in a recent Learning Plan review, the SMART Goal concerned the child building self-regulation skills and the discussion had by the team was about the behaviour escalation signs that everyone saw that this child gave. The parent suggested that everyone was getting ahead of themselves, and asked, did the child recognised what their signs of becoming dysregulated were? It turned out that both the parent and the teacher thought they did not know, so they agreed that the SMART Goal should be teaching the student to recognise their signs, as the first step to helping them to build self-regulation skills.

Discuss additional supports that may be available for your child.

Students with disability in Tasmanian Government schools have access to Specialist services to support their access, participation, and engagement of students with disability in Tasmanian government schools. These include transport assistance, minor access works and building modifications, specialist equipment, therapy services, and specialist services:

• Complex Medical Training – St John Ambulance to provide schools with competency-based assessment and training to staff and support personnel for management of Gastrostomy / PEG, Tracheostomy, Catheter, Seizure, Oxygen, advanced Resuscitation, and other Clinical skills specific to complete individual health requirements.
• Consultative Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy in Schools – This is a program to support education staff to meet the diverse learning needs of students who have a primary cognitive delay with associated physical (gross and fine motor), sensory needs, and/or need support with activities of daily living.
• Inclusion and Access Coordinators (IAC) – Experienced teachers who support the school by facilitating professional learning for teachers, teacher assistants and specialists in areas such as technology, manual handling and other specific areas related to students with physical and medical support needs.
• Mediation & liaison Service – Life Without Barriers provides a liaison and mediation service to support families and school staff in developing positive and close working partnerships for children with disability in Tasmanian Government schools.
• Learning Services Student Support includes Hearing Services, Inclusive Practice Team, Safe Homes Safe Families, School Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech and Language Pathologists, Support Teachers, and Vision Services.

For more information about Specialist Services in Tasmanian Government School visit: https://www.decyp.tas.gov.au/for-families/support-your-childs-learning/disability-support/specialist-services

In Catholic Education, there is Student Support Services: https://catholic.tas.edu.au/support-for-students.

Prepare for accessing Therapy Services through the NDIS at school.

For school-aged recipients of NDIS services, their package of care may be provided on school premises during school time. In these cases, it is at the discretion of the principal to decide whether NDIS providers can enter the school. An application form must be submitted by the parent/carer to the principal which is assessed case-by-case.

Further reading

If you would like to find out more about social stories and additional strategies to help your child deal with all the changes of transitioning to a new class or school visit the Transition to School page.

You may also find Tips for Transitioning Article on Sue Larkey’s website helpful.

ACD Tas is here to help, if there are bumps at the start of the school year and children with disability are not settling in as well as hoped after a few weeks, please make contact with the ACD Tas Peer Network Hub or Advocacy team in your region.