Resolved complaint (238) about disability discrimination in education

About the complaint

The complainant’s son has level 3 autism spectrum disorder and attended the respondent public primary school with one-to-one teacher support and additional teacher’s aide support. The complainant alleged the school proposed to exclude her son from an excursion unless she drove him to the venue and helped his teacher during the excursion. She alleged that the school had told her that her son could not travel to a swimming program on the school bus and she was required to drive her son to the venue and accompany him into the water. The complainant said the school was creating an inequitable and exclusionary educational experience.

On being advised of the complaint, the school indicated a willingness to try to resolve the complaint by conciliation.

The complaint was resolved by conciliation. The parties undertook to work together more cooperatively to enhance the complainant’s son’s meaningful participation in future excursions and programs, including by having additional planning meetings. The school undertook to provide staff with additional training to enable them to more effectively support the complainant’s son.

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