The national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) will require uniform guidelines for the treatment of children with a disability, assistant social services minister, Mitch Fifield, said, in the wake of revelations a cage-like structure was built in a public school for a child with special needs.
The Australian Capital Territory government has launched an independent investigation after the education minister, Joy Burch, learnt of the 2m by 2m structure.
It has been reported the student is a 10-year old boy with autism, but Burch would not comment on the individual circumstances of the child.
Fifield said the case was “appalling”.
“Regrettably, we do hear of instances around Australia in schools from time to time where there are inappropriate restrictive practices used,” the assistant minister said.
“But this is something that we need to look at not just in schools, but also as we look to the rollout of the NDIS nationwide. At the moment, the safeguards arrangements for people with disability are essentially state-based. With the NDIS nationwide, we will need a national safeguards regime in place,” Fifield said.
The director of Autism Awareness Australia, Nicole Rogerson, told ABC News that a national framework was needed so that teachers could be trained on how to integrate students with autism into mainstream schools.
“Autism has been in the too-hard basket for a long time with successive Australian governments, both federally and state,” she said.
“Gains can be made, but it requires intensive intervention, and there needs to be a national standard to what that is.”
Rogerson said the framework would require extra funding.
Labor’s education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, has called the case “shocking and deeply disturbing”.
“The abuse or neglect of students with disability is absolutely unacceptable,” she said.
The principal of the school, which has not been named, has been suspended pending the investigation.
The director general of the education and training directorate, Diane Joseph, said: “The structure has been in the classroom from 10 March until 27 March. It was built for a particular student to help manage his behaviour and to provide a space for that student to withdraw.”
Debra Costley from Autism Spectrum Australia told ABC News on Friday morning the use of safe places in schools was not uncommon.
“Often we try to make a quiet space, a safe space where if children are feeling anxious ... they can take themselves off and just sit quietly, do some breathing exercises, calm themselves down and then come back into the lesson,” she said. “Many classrooms do put quiet places for children but they might be something like a beanbag in a library corner or some headsets children can put on.
“The concept of withdrawal is not unknown for children with autism and other disabilities but what we’ve heard [of the cage-like structure] does go to the extreme,” Costley said.
