‘Specialist schools’? More segregation is not the solution for disabled learners

When I was in high school, I was segregated from my classmates. I attended a mainstream school, but was still excluded from a typical schooling experience. On paper, I was a good student, was social, had a strong group of friends and took part in lots of extracurricular activities (yeah, I was a goody-good nerd!).

What led to my segregation wasn’t my abilities, but the lack of accessibility. Some of my classes were held upstairs and my school had no lift so as a wheelchair-user, I couldn’t access it. While the rest of my class went upstairs to do their writing activities together, I was left downstairs, alone, working on a laptop.

That physical segregation quickly became social segregation, and it easily could have turned into academic segregation as well, with limited access to teacher support compared to my peers upstairs. I don’t believe this was what my teachers wanted and isolating a student was never their first choice. But because of limited funding, the school’s layout and the structure of the education system, segregation became the default solution.

The Government’s announcement today to develop two more specialist schools for students with ‘high needs’ amounts to increasing segregation of young disabled people from mainstream schools. By continuing to normalise segregation, perpetuating the idea that disabled people don’t belong in mainstream spaces, we are likely to see disabled students being put in the ‘too hard’ basket and excluded from attending their local schools.

While the Education Minister may argue that these schools meet the unique needs of disabled students, I believe we can agree that socially separating disabled students from non-disabled students will ultimately do more harm than good. Young disabled people shouldn’t wait until adulthood to be included in mainstream society. Sir Robert Martin, who attended residential schools himself, was once asked why those institutions existed when there was no “special society” as a whole. Having disabled kids in mainstream schools is beneficial for everyone, including non-disabled students. Everyone should learn to be in an environment with people who have diverse needs and backgrounds. 

Putting money into specialist schools also disincentivises mainstream schools from improving and investing into disabled students, and those students will continue to have lower outcomes and experiences like mine where little effort was made to include me. It creates an incorrect perception that specialist schools are the only place that caters to disabled students, with parents under the illusion it’s the best option for their child. 

The minister argues specialist schools gives parents “choice”, but it’s not really giving them any real appealing choice when there’s a lack of support and funding at mainstream schools in the first place. While some might think specialist schools better cater to disabled learners, this is also possible at mainstream schools if they only had the resources to do so. And often accepting an enrolment for a disabled child is up to the schools, not the parents.

We as disabled people have a right to be fully included in every part of society, especially during our formative years at school. Segregation should never become the default solution. Separating people based on their disabilities is all too familiar to anyone who remembers the historical horror of residential schools and institutions. We’ve come too far now to go backwards and make institutions an accepted part of Aotearoa’s society again.