National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an Australia-wide scheme to support people aged 0 to 65 years with permanent and significant disability.
Through the NDIS, people with disability will be able to access "reasonable and necessary" supports to achieve their personal goals. Reasonable and necessary supports are those that help participants to live an ordinary life - that is, to build their skills and abilities so they can engage in education, employment and community activities.
The NDIS gives participants and their families more choice and control over their disability supports and how those supports are provided.
The NDIS is managed by the National Disability Insurance Agency, or NDIA. The NDIA is responsible for determining eligibility for the scheme and for developing personalised support plans for participants.
If your child becomes a participant in the NDIS, they will have an individual plan that lists their goals and the funding they have received to purchase supports and services that will help to achieve their goals.
How will our local school work with the NDIS to help support my child?
Contacting the NDIS
If you would like to see if your child is eligible for support from the NDIS, your local school can help you get in touch with the Local Area Coordinator.
You can also contact the NDIS directly, by phone, an online contact form, or visiting your local NDIS office.
The school can add to your application by giving you any existing information they have about your child - for example, personalised learning plans and school-based assessments of your child’s educational needs - which you can request.
However, the school is not required to complete new assessments or produce new reports for the NDIS application process.
NDIS-funded service providers at school
Some children and young people with disability benefit from allied health and specialist therapies, like physiotherapy, speech pathology and occupational therapy.
In most cases, these therapies can be delivered at home or in a therapist’s office. Some therapies may be best delivered in school during school time.
Schools work with both parents and carers and allied health providers to meet the needs of students and support their learning and development.
This may include sharing information about the student and what activities might work best to support them. In some cases, where it is suitable, this may mean working directly with the provider in the classroom.
If your child is being supported by the NDIS, there may be times when you can ask for an NDIS-funded service provider to work with your child at your local school.
The school’s principal makes the decision if and when these services can be provided during school hours, and will make sure that the flow of the school day is not interrupted.
The principal's decision will consider the educational needs of your child, the impact on your child's learning programs, the school’s operational requirements and duty of care obligations towards all students and staff
You can also share your child’s NDIS goals and aspirations plan with your school, so it can be used to help to form the personalised learning and development for your child. You do not have to share your child’s NDIS Plan with the school if you do not want to.
Video: Public schools and the NDIS
Duration: 3:37 min
