Hugo’s short fall of funding in the mainstream Schooling system

The constant battle of having my disabled son fully supported in the mainstream school system never ceases to amaze me.

Granted just 3 hours per day of Learning Support, how on earth is my moderately Autistic and moderately Intellectually Impaired son who also has a General Anxiety Disorder meant to access his human right of going to a main stream school like all the other 6 year olds?

The answer is, I pay out of my own pocket to make up for the short fall.
Despite only being partially enrolled; attending from 9.20am to 2pm and doesn’t go Wednesdays.

I employ someone for the afternoon to make sure Hugo gets the lessons taught to him at his level. That he waits in line, doesn’t behave inappropriately and that he doesn’t go out of the school fenced area when he hears a lawn mower.

And now struggling with the other short fall of using all our Helping Children with Autism Funding and waiting for the NDIS to kick in.

‘Why keep fighting?’ I ask myself all the time … Why?
Why me? Why him? Why the school? Why our family?

I fight for all of us. We have become so locked into our own little worlds that the sense of community is being lost. The exposure to a minority is vanishing as we shove the disabled into a special schools because mainstream is inadequately funded.

The Learning Support Officer that I employ is a Uni student doing a Dip. Ed. specialising in Additional Needs. She has been with Hugo since the beginning on the Kindy year. Her 5 week practicum lies ahead and apparently it’s a ‘conflict of interest’ for her to do it at Hugo’s school.

So I loose her for 5 weeks … Where does the responsibility lie in that lost time.

Hugo has to either come home at noon, or I have to find someone else or the Department of Education miraculously funds Hugo full time and it he becomes their responsibility entirely.