Additional Information for DDA Review Consultation November 2025
My experience demonstrates how the current Disability Standards fail to protect children with disability from exclusion, discrimination, and avoidable harm.
My neurodivergent child has been excluded from meaningful education for most of the last three years. Despite repeated requests, the school consistently failed to provide simple, no cost adjustments that would have enabled participation. At a time when our family was already under significant stress—stress the school knew about—my child experienced a traumatic incident, which the school was also fully aware of. Instead of responding with support, compassion, or adjustments, the school treated my child’s disability-related behaviour as misconduct.
They suspended my child for 2.5 weeks, without offering any alternative supports and without justifying any actual “risk,”. Two days after my child returned from that suspension, the school attempted to suspend them again—this time for behaviour that directly resulted from the school’s own failure to follow those agreed plans. At no point were reasonable adjustments attempted, explored, or even discussed.
Throughout this period, I worked tirelessly and in good faith to collaborate with the school and the Department. Instead of receiving timely support, I encountered gatekeeping, long delays, and a complete lack of accountability. During a critical moment—when I was trying desperately to get my child back to school for the final term of primary school—a senior departmental executive told me they would only respond once every 14 days “if appropriate,” despite knowing I was in distress and that my child had already missed extensive schooling.
The school took no meaningful action for an entire month. By the time they finally agreed to meet, it was too late to prepare my child for the start of term. When that meeting finally happened, staff came with no new ideas, no adjustments, and no recognition of the impact of the delay. They offered nothing that would enable my child to return safely or successfully.
Because of these failures, my child missed crucial social, developmental, and educational milestones—including the chance to complete primary school alongside their peers. The emotional, behavioural, and educational impacts have been profound. My family and I have carried the full weight of the administrative, emotional, and practical burden of navigating a system that has been unresponsive, dismissive, and at times harmful.
My story is not unique. It reveals a systemic problem: without enforceable timelines, mandatory accountability, and consequences for non-compliance, the Disability Standards do not protect children with disability. Families are left fighting alone while schools and departments face no repercussions for decisions that deeply and irreversibly affect children’s lives.