The NSW Department of Education is committed to building a more inclusive education system, where every student feels welcome and can learn to their fullest capability, and that meets the needs of students with disability, their families and their community. The Disability Strategy sets out our plan for meeting these commitments.

To achieve this, NSW public schools provide a range of specialist services to support students with disability and additional learning and support needs. This includes support for students’ diverse needs in learning or behaviour, students with disability and students with additional health and wellbeing needs.

Every mainstream NSW public school has a learning and support teacher, who works directly in the school to support students with disability and additional learning and support needs, and their classroom teachers.

If your child has a disability or additional needs, start by talking to your local public school. The school will have a meeting with you to find out more and talk about how they can help.

A school can make reasonable adjustments for your child – for example, changes to lessons, or to the classroom, or even big changes like putting in ramps or doing building work. You know your child best, so it is important to have early conversations so that you and the school can work together to come up with a plan.

All parents and carers have a right to enrol their child in their local public school. Parents and carers can also apply to enrol their child in a support class in a mainstream school or school for specific purposes where this best meets the needs of their child. The department acknowledges the importance of parental choice regarding the type of education provided to their child. Regardless of where a child is enrolled, all education programs in place for a student with disability need to be regularly reviewed with the student and their parents and carers to determine its ongoing appropriateness.