Formal partnerships between ACT specialist and mainstream schools will be established under a new disability inclusion plan.
ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry has unveiled a new 10-year strategy for disability inclusion within the territory's public schools.
The strategy will include professional learning for school leaders with inclusion-focused coaching and mentoring for principals.
The inclusion coaches will be first rolled out in public schools in Tuggeranong.
Legislation will also be reviewed with a policy to reinforce the rights of children and young people with disability to enrol, attend and access adjustments at their local school.
There will also be a needs-based funding model for students with a disability. Ms Berry said work was underway with allied health programs in schools to determine how the funding model would work.
Ms Berry said the strategy would help to build an inclusive school culture. She also reaffirmed the territory government's commitment to specialist schools with children and young people with disability.
Half the commissioners in the recent disability royal commission recommended special schools should be phased out saying it was incompatible with inclusion and the rights of students with a disability. The other commissioners disagreed.
Ms Berry has said that is no intention for the territory government to close specialist schools and, instead, the government was focused on strengthening relationships between specialist and mainstream schools.
"We already have these kinds of relationships but we want to formalise that and really focus on sharing specialist and expert knowledge across schools," she said.
"But also making sure that we can welcome young people across our school system regardless of where they are so having that collaboration at the top with that specialist knowledge but also giving young people the chance to go into the schools whether that's a specialist school setting or a mainstream school setting."
The strategy will also examine the allied health systems within the schools and the strategy would cover learning difficulties not part of the NDIS such as ADHD and dyslexia.
"That is about making sure that young people are funded for needs beyond a diagnosis. It could be funding for different things within a classroom or infrastructure needs but it doesn't need to be a diagnosis of a particular neurodiversity or need," Ms Berry said.
The strategy will be from 2024 to 2034 and the government has earmarked $9.9 million to the first stage.
A recent report from the ACT Auditor-General found students with a disability were falling through the cracks as there was a requirement for students to have a medical diagnosis before being accepted into a disability education program.
