Govt plans for special education

Press, 19 April 1989, Page 12

Govt plans for special education

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Children with special needs are catered for in education policies agreed to by the Cabinet this week.

A Special Education Service will be set up and given statutory responsibility by the new Education Act to be introduced later this year.

Its governing body will be a board of six members appointed by the Minister of Education and its functions will be to deliver services for children who need extra support, remedial education or some programme tailored to their special needs.

“Right from the release of the Picot Report I made clear my commitment to ensure the continuation of the best possible services to children with special needs,” said the Minister of Education, Mr Lange. He said the Cabinet had decided that the Special Education Service should be funded 100 per cent by

the Government. That altered what had been announced in “Tomorrow’s Schools” where the service was to earn 20 per cent of its income from other sources. The effect of the revised decision would be that no teacher or parent would have to have confidential information about children or family circumstances aired in front of a board of trustees meeting before funds for a psychologist were forthcoming, for example. Mr Lange said the service’s functions and framework would be decided by the Minister of Education.

There would be an annual contract negotiated between the Ministry of Education and the Special Education Service covering funding and performance.