The Australian Government Department of Education (Department) has worked with Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) to co-design a new range of resources to help young people with disability and their parents and caregivers to understand their rights under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Standards).
The resources provide easy-to-use information about the Standards and offer practical advice on how to navigate the education system.
You can find the resources on the Department’s website here: www.education.gov.au/disability-standards-education-2005/students
What are the resources?
There are four new resources:
- Explaining the Disability Standards for Education – this resource outlines what the Standards are and what they are designed to do.
- Milestones and Transitions – this resource is to help students and their parents and caregivers make their way through their education journey.
- Advocating with and for your child: Primary School – this resource is for parents and caregivers of primary school students.
- Disability Standards for Education in Practice: Action Plan – this resource is for students who are in high school or tertiary education.
Each resource is available in Easy Read format and Auslan and translated into Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Farsi, Hindi, Khmer, Korean and Vietnamese.
Help Share the Resources
The Department needs your help to ensure the resources reach the people who need them. This includes students, their families and carers, as well as education providers and their staff.
You can share the resources relevant to you through your networks to encourage people to use them and to pass them on to their own contacts.
How the resources were developed
The content of the new resources was created by students with disability and their parents and caregivers, with help from CYDA. Development was informed by consultation with a range of disability organisations and with input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and people with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The new resources respond to Recommendation 1 and 12a of the 2020 Review of the Standards. These recommendations were developed to provide individuals with an understanding of their rights under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Standards.
Next steps
The Department are partnering with CYDA to develop more resources and we will let you know when these are available. These will include resources aimed at supporting specific communities such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Any questions?
A copy of the media release from the Hon Anne Aly MP, Minister for Youth, and the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Minister for Government Services, about these resources can be found at the following link: https://ministers.education.gov.au/aly/new-resources-support-children-and-students-disability
For further information on these resources, please make contact at [email protected].