News/Announcements

Kerrie Curtis with son Harry and daughter Isabelle.
Photo: Simon Schluter

Jewel Topsfield Education Editor for The Age, 24 September 2012

AS THE mother of three children on the autism spectrum, Kerrie Curtis is a veteran of battles with the Victorian education system.

Her latest fight is to get special VCE exam provisions for her oldest son Liam, who has Asperger's, an anxiety disorder and a learning difficulty. Ms Curtis' frustration is not with his school, RMIT, which she says has been absolutely superb.

However she says the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has been ''extraordinarily inflexible''. Just weeks away from VCE exams she is still trying to apply for him to use a laptop in exams.

Meanwhile, she is fighting to get her son Harry's primary school to pay for the speech therapy and assistance with emotional regulation and social skills that medical experts say he needs.

THE NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped investigations into the death of profoundly autistic Canberra teenager Jack Sullivan more than four years ago.

Almost two years since the case was passed to the DPP, the public prosecutor says it does not have enough evidence to press manslaughter charges against a person whose name has been suppressed.

Since Jack's death, his mother, Esther Woodbury, had assumed her son drowned in a bath after an epileptic seizure while in outside care.

By Emily Bourke

Thousands of Australian children with autism could miss out on government-funded support and services because of changes to the way autism is diagnosed.

The manual of medical disorders known as the DSM 5, used by psychiatrists around the world, is being updated.

The updated American guidebook for mental disorders is expected to be released in May next year, but already it has many people nervous.

The Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, has developed an online resource for ASD students, parents, and tertiary staff. The website development was part of a larger project which aims to support tertiary students diagnosed with ASD.

Here’s the link: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/otarc/info/support

Briefly, each section contains the following information:
• Students: transition and orientation, disclosure, what to expect at university and TAFE, learning at university and TAFE.

Sandy Guy
July 2, 2012

Opinion

LAST Tuesday I received a phone call from a former Yooralla regional manager. She said police were going to the home of my 31-year-old son, who is severely disabled, to interview him and the other five residents of the house, which is run by Yooralla.

Stunned, I asked her what was going on. She replied that a Yooralla casual carer was in police custody charged with alleged abuse. I asked her when the police were going to my son's house. She said they were already there.

Farah Farouque
June 25, 2012

The UN report noted that indigenous children were significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice and child protection systems.

The UN report noted that indigenous children were significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice and child protection systems. Photo: Angela Wylie

A UNITED Nations committee has pulled up Australia on the status of its children, citing concerns from ''serious and widespread'' racial discrimination faced by indigenous youth to inadequate numbers of newborns being breastfed by their mothers.

A court case is running in Victoria (see http://a4.org.au/a4/node/481) about education for a child with a disability. So far the department has said that the reason for the young man’s failure to learn is that, he ate too many donuts.

An expert witness for the Education Department told the court said standardised assessments are not as good as unwritten teacher observations because, teachers have a special gift.

The department lawyers and their expert witness said that people with an intellectual disability don’t learn, so no matter what you do with them they don’t improve.

Beau Abela. Photo: Craig Abraham

Maris Beck, May 1, 2012

A TEENAGER is suing the Education Department in Victoria because he cannot read, write or count properly, saying he was silenced with medication and teachers blamed his inability to learn on eating doughnuts.

Beau Abela, now 18, claims he was victimised and discriminated against because of his complex learning disability.

Barrister David Hancock told the Federal Court in Melbourne that his client, Beau, did not have the literacy or numeracy skills to get a job. “Instead he sits at home wondering what to do with his life.”

Mr Hancock said that the department had blamed Beau, his family, “even his diet” and had not provided enough help. Mr Hancock contrasted reports from prep and early school years describing Beau as happy, responsible and friendly with later reports of aggression and disengagement. “The longer Beau has been at school, the more his intellectual functioning has actually declined.”

He told the court, presided over by Justice Richard Tracey, that Beau had passed through the system even though he had failed to meet the required academic levels, and despite his father’s repeated concerns.

Media Release