THE mother of a teenager with autism has offered to redraw on her mortgage to keep him at Williamstown High School, as the school’s budget is stretched to a “razor’s edge” by state government cuts.
Raelene MacDonald said the Education Department had halved funding for her son’s classroom aide, saying. “Luke needs to learn to be independent”.
Williamstown High School pulled money from its budget so Luke, 15, could attend the mainstream school with an aide four days a week.
However, the school has run out of money.
Principal Lisa Sperling said the school’s budget was on a “razor’s edge” after it was forced to find $40,000 for the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning program, an alternative to the Victorian Certificate of Education.
This followed the government’s decision to slash funding to employ a VCAL co-ordinator to aid year 11 and 12 students to find work placement one day a week.
Ironically, Luke loves carpentry and had hoped to enter the VCAL program.
“I really would like that we did have more support for Luke,” Ms Sperling said.
“He’s a fantastic kid and doing really well. What he does need is more one-on-one support in the classroom and we don’t get funding for that.”
Ms McDonald said Luke had thrived at school with an aide, but without one, could not cope.
She said the department had refused her desperate bid to use mortgage repayments to fund an aide, saying it was “illegal” and would discriminate against other students.
Luke attended Western Autistic School before he transferred to Williamstown Primary School, where he had an aide for 20 hours a week.
When he started secondary school, his aide funding was cut to two days and 12 minutes.
“He has a core group of friends that he’s grown up with from primary school and those core friends look after him,” Ms MacDonald said.
“He’s a very happy boy: fun loving, into
computers, he gives a lot to my family. I think he’s made us all very different people in a very positive way.
“He loves a joke – always having a joke in class – and he’s willing and wanting to learn.
“If he wasn’t at that school he’d have nothing. He’d basically sit in his room and look at his computer.”
Ms MacDonald said the goal at Western Autistic School was to transition children into mainstream schools.
“That’s all very well and good: we did that; we did the transition in prep for Luke and that went beautifully.
“But then in secondary level … I think he’s just going to get further and further behind.
“My husband said to me last night, ‘What are we going to do if we don’t get aide time?’ I try not to think about it just yet.”
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said there was a clear injustice.
“Williamstown High School have gone out of its way to help Luke and his family, but they’re now getting let down by a system that provides inadequate levels of integration funding.
“This is not an issue about whether the aide for Luke is warranted; it’s an issue about funding and fairness,” Mr Noonan said.
Education Minister Martin Dixon’s spokeswoman, Jane Metlikovec, said the school could seek reassessment if it believed funding should be reviewed or increased.
“In the case of this student, the department has not been approached to review funding .
“As in every case, the department will accept any approach from the school to review the funding for this student.
“Victorian law states that classroom instruction, which includes teaching aides for eligible students, must be provided free in government schools, and schools cannot request or accept payment for support officers such as aides.”
