Students with disability

Choosing the right school for your child is an important decision.

You can apply to enrol your child at your local primary or secondary state school where they will be welcomed and supported to participate in school activities, learn and achieve their full potential.

If your child has an intellectual disability that either alone or in combination with other disabilities severely impacts their ability to learn, you can choose to enrol your child at your local state school or apply for enrolment at a state special school. Set criteria apply for enrolment at Queensland state special schools.

You can find your local state school or special school on the department's schools directory.

If you are not sure which Queensland state school to contact, your closest regional office can help.

Information about how to enrol your child in a state school or special school is available on enrolment.

Hear about some of the ways schools across Queensland are supporting students starting or moving schools.

• Wynnum Early Childhood Development Program and Wondall Heights State School transition to Prep (duration 7:23mins)
  Transcript (DOCX, 29KB)
• Whitfield State School and Trinity Bay State High School transition to junior secondary (duration 6:15mins)
  Transcript (DOCX, 29KB)

Queensland state schools make reasonable adjustments to enable students with disability to access and participate in education.

Reasonable adjustments are strategies or supports that help children with disability to attend school, learn, participate in school activities and support their wellbeing while at school. They take into account the student's learning needs and balance the interests of everyone including the needs of other students and staff. This means that reasonable adjustments in one school might be different in another.

Schools are provided additional resources and can access expert advice from a range of support services to make these adjustments, in consultation with you, to ensure your child is accessing and participating fully at school.

School staff will talk to you about your child's learning goals and what supports are available to help your child to attend school, learn and achieve. Other professionals such as school-based therapists and guidance officers may provide advice to schools about the reasonable adjustments for your child.

Many students with disability receive supports outside of school. These supports can make a big difference to how a student learns at school. If your child is receiving support outside of school that may support their learning at school, let your school know so they can work with the other service providers to give your child the best support they can to reach their full potential.

Hear about some of the ways schools across Queensland are supporting students with disability to succeed.

• Oonoonba State School (duration 6:12mins)
  Transcript (DOCX, 46KB)
• Bowen State High School (duration 5:02mins)
  Transcript (DOCX, 27KB)
• Charleville video (duration 4:23mins)
  Transcript (DOCX, 43KB)

Related resources

Read the Disability Standards for Education: A Practical Guide for Individuals, Families and Communities for more information about reasonable adjustments and the Disability Standards for Education 2005.

Hear about the standards in the following video.

Disability Standards for Education  
Disability Standards for Education transcript

Hear about the support provided in Queensland state schools in the following animation.

Supporting students with disability – animation – Queensland state schools
Video transcript (DOCX, 26KB)

Related resources

• Parent and community engagement for parents factsheet (PDF, 17MB)
• Read about ways for schools and teachers to support parents to engage in their child's learning (PDF, 3.1MB)
• Disability Standards for Education: A Practical Guide for Individuals, Families and Communities – Consulting on Adjustments.
  
  

If you have concerns about your child's education, the first step is to discuss your concerns with your child's teacher or the school principal. 

In some situations it can take time to identify and provide the most appropriate supports for your child. It is important to continue working with your child's teachers to solve issues.

If you still have concerns after talking to the school principal you can raise them with your regional office.

You can also make a complaint in writing, by telephone or email.

Many state schools share information with parents through newsletters or their school's website.

You can find information about what is happening in state schools across the state by visiting the Department of Education website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

You may also want to sign up for free email updates for our schools + parent online free monthly e-newletter focusing on current and upcoming news, events, education programs and policies for parents of Queensland state school students.

Specific for students with disability, the department is implementing a wide range of initiatives to improve outcomes for students with disability through its Every Student with Disability Succeeding plan.

Our Autism Hub and Reading Centre Facebook pages provide information about what is happening to support students with autism and to inspire, encourage and teach young Queenslanders to read.

Some students with disability may need or receive services and support outside of school. There are many organisations that can help children and young people with disability and provide advice and support to parents and families.

Some people with disability may also be able to get support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). You can find out about your child's eligibility for the NDIS by contacting either an Early Childhood Partner for children aged zero to 6 years or a local area coordinator for older children.

Information about NDIS and schools is available on the department's NDIS webpage and NDIS fact sheet (PDF, 134KB).