Abstract
Partnership - what partnership? This symposium explores the changes in special education policy in New Zealand since the 1996 introduction of Special Education 2000. This is undertaken from a parental perspective and involves a critical analysis of the shift from a rights based, needs response with the state as the key provider; to a model of verification of need and the supplying of funding to local schools charged with implementing special education policy. This apparent removal of state accountability, lack of transparency and loss of avenues of appeal has had a considerable impact on families now become party to direct negotiation with their local school.
This paper critically examines the notion of partnership and pinpoints how the key features of the policy apparatus have been implemented by the state without the underlying ideological shifts being discussed with or understood by families and caregivers. These changes need to be understood by parents so they can actively engage in the "partnership" that the policy espouses. Approaches to overcoming the present difficulties will be addressed in this paper.
Parents who do not have the resources and stamina won't cope
This paper builds on research conducted in 1997 with 260 parents in
metropolitan Auckland (New Zealand)on the need for educational advocacy for
parents of children with special needs. The paper will briefly review the
research carried out in 1997. Drawing on the conclusions reached in that
research, the paper will critically examine the impact on families of the New
Zealand government's Special Education 2000 policy, introduced in 1996, which
does not have any provision for advocacy on behalf of parents. In New Zealand
there is no formal body with the jurisdiction to advocate on behalf of the
child with special needs and their family.
A number of children with special needs who formerly had access to independent professional expertise within the school system now do not, because these children are now no longer individually resourced. Parents of these children have become raille ized and have little or no voice in the delivery of their child's resource.
This paper interviews parents with children in the education system as well as re-interviewing some of the original parents who contributed to the 1997 research, to determine their present views on the need for educational advocacy.
From Rights to Policy
This paper examines some of the issues
and outcomes arising from the decentralisation of special education funding and
decision making and their devolution to schools. In 1996 the New Zealand
government released the policy Special Education 2000; this was the final
component in the reform of education started with Tomorrows Schools in
1988.Parental choice, school self-management, entrepreneurism, and bulk funding
of salaries for staff; combined, were designed to lift the quality of
education. The resulting market model has seen the emergence of "winner" and
"loser" schools. In mid 1999 a number of local school principals were
interviewed to explore their responses to this policy, and a case study was
undertaken with one secondary school supporting over thirty students with
special educational needs. Demands of budget control and resource management
have displaced the intention of the Education Act 1989, to enable parents to
enrol their child at their local school. As principals grapple with the policy
complexities of Special Education 2000, which demands that schools shift to the
"ecological paradigm" of response; students with special needs remain
marginalized by the changes.
 |
 |