Ministerial Statement

Petition No. 96 of 2021

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:01): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: I rise to provide the house with the government response to Petition No. 96 of 2021: Funding for Children and Students with Additional Learning Needs in Public Schools and Preschools, and the subsequent report from the Social Development Committee.

The government welcomes the Social Development Committee report. As acknowledged in the report, since the petition was first tabled in November 2021 by me as the then shadow minister for education, we have implemented a range of election commitments designed to increase funding and support for students with disability and additional needs.

From 2023, we have introduced an autism inclusion teacher in every public primary school, including reception to year 12 schools, and $28.8 million was allocated in the 2022-23 state budget over the forward estimates. In that same budget, we invested $50 million over four years to enable 100 FTE mental health and learning support specialists to provide more support to students across South Australia. This includes a new school mental health service, employing 55 FTE to support young people with mild to moderate and emerging mental health concerns.

From this year, we have made access to support simpler through inclusive education support program funding reform. This includes additional investment of approximately $50 million for schools to support students with disability. The department has developed new practice guides for teaching students with additional needs, introduced a new case management system for student support services to better plan for service provision and is undertaking a pilot with schools about the optimal deployment of school service officers.

The department has improved access to allied health services with a particular focus on country areas by using telepractice for psychology and speech pathology and using external providers where demand cannot be met within the department. I am pleased to note that of the 23 recommendations made, eight are complete, a further five are supported and 10 are supported in principle.

I would like to thank the 10,000-plus signatories and the Australian Education Union who assisted in preparing the petition and getting signatures, and reassure them that the Malinauskas government is committed to supporting all children and students in our education system.