Responsibility: Education Ministers Meeting
Response: Accept in principle
Status: Further work required
What has been achieved to date
Governments have signed the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement or Better and Fairer Schools Agreement – Full and Fair Funding 2025-2034 which recognises teachers, educators, support staff and school leaders as vital to achieving shared education goals for young Australians. Governments have committed to working together to foster high-quality teaching and school leadership, including through developing well-prepared pre-service teachers, and building a diverse educator workforce that is reflective of the contemporary Australian population.
All Education Ministers agreed to amend accreditation standards and procedures to require content in initial teacher education programs that builds teachers responsiveness to the needs of diverse students, including students with disability. The amendments were published by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership as an addendum to the Accreditation Standards and Procedures.
The Australian Government has released information resources for education providers and educators to help them understand and carry out their legal and professional obligations to students with disability. This includes advice on consultation and setting up reasonable adjustments.
Some examples of state and territory progress to implement the intent of this recommendation include, but are not limited to,
- Under the Queensland Government’s $222.1 million More teachers, better education initiative, more teachers will be trained in inclusive education. Commencing in 2025-26, this investment will create a continued focus on capability building in inclusive education to ensure staff have the knowledge and expertise they need to support their students with disability.
- From 2024, the Western Australian Government commenced a $2.26 million trial of 16 full-time equivalent (FTE) Complex Behaviour Support (CBS) Coordinators, to support 48 public schools to develop whole-school approaches to help teachers better support and address the needs of students with disability and/or complex needs. From 2025, the initiative is being expanded to 64 FTE CBS Coordinators supporting 192 public schools that need them the most, providing timely interventions for students with complex needs, to reduce behaviour disruptions and help teachers focus on the task of teaching. 11 Disability Confident professional learning modules were released in August 2024 to upskill public school staff in supporting students with disability.
- The ACT Education Directorate has commenced a try, test and learn phase of a new Inclusion Coach initiative in an ACT school network to develop staff confidence and capability to meet the needs of students with disability. The Directorate has also partnered with Macquarie University to develop dedicated training for school staff in areas such as understanding neurodiversity, hearing loss, and supporting behaviour.
In late 2024, South Australia commenced an Autism Inclusion in Secondary Schools trial in 9 mainstream secondary schools with autistic students transitioning to their sites in 2025. The trial focuses on building essential classroom practices and neurodiversity affirming transition processes within the school community by delivering professional learning and supports to school leadership and year 7 school staff. This builds on the success of the 2023 initiative to fund access to an Autism Inclusion Teacher in every public primary school ($28.8 million commitment).
What the Disability Royal Commission said in the final report
Knowledge and skills
a) The Education Ministers Meeting should commission the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to review and amend the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) to embed a human rights based approach to inclusive education for students with disability across teachers’ careers.
b) To provide guidance for teachers on the revised APST, the Education Ministers Meeting should instruct AITSL to develop an inclusive education capability framework, setting out the knowledge, skills and attitudes to deliver inclusive education.
Continuing professional development
c) State and territory educational authorities should create and implement professional development strategies based on an inclusive education capability framework for principals, teachers, teaching assistants and teachers of deaf children.
Disability expertise and skills shortages
d) The Education Ministers Meeting should expand the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to identify actions that can strengthen initial teacher education in inclusive education and attract and retain people with disability and others with expertise in delivering inclusive education.
e) State and territory governments should increase access to expertise in inclusive education in government schools by:
- employing lead practitioners specialising in inclusive teaching, behavioural support and deaf education to work across schools in a regional catchment to initiate and lead activities that focus on improving educational opportunities for students with disability, including by establishing inclusive learning environments that meet the needs of students
- employing skilled and qualified Auslan interpreters
- setting employment targets for people with disability in government schools and working with all school sectors in their jurisdiction to increase disability employment.
Joint Government Response July 2024
The Australian Government and state and territory governments supports the Disability Royal Commission’s vision to build workforce capability and expertise and strengthen complaints management practices.
Considerable progress has already occurred in relation to these recommendations as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan and the review of the Disability Standards for Education 2005 undertaken in 2020.
More recommendations
View progress on other recommendations made by the Royal Commission.