You can talk to your child’s teacher about accessing support at any time during your child’s life at school, including in the middle of the school year.

You can also speak to the school counsellor or psychologist, the year advisor if your child is in high school, or the school’s principal.

You can meet with school staff to:

• discuss your child’s strengths, interests and needs
• discuss your child’s progress
• plan your child's learning adjustments and supports.
  
  

Assessing your child’s needs

To make the best adjustments for your child, your local school requires a thorough understanding of what they need to reach their full potential.

You can help the school identify your child’s support needs by providing the following, if you have them available:

• Any documents you have about your child from doctors or health or allied health professionals and therapists, such as a paediatrician, psychologist, psychiatrist, speech pathologist or occupational therapist.
• Curriculum assessments, if they are already going to school.
• Any available information about their reading and numeracy, language skills and communication, their social and emotional behaviour, their health care needs, their pattern of attendance and their personal and cultural background.
• Any other existing profiles or assessments that describe your child’s learning and support needs.
• Your child’s strengths and interests.

The school plans for your child’s support needs by looking at:

• information about your child, and your preferences for their schooling
• your child’s educational and access needs
• how effective any other support or interventions have been for your child
• their knowledge of what support options are available for your child
• the effect of your child’s travel time to school on them
• their eligibility for different support options, and how they would be accessed.