The National Disability Insurance Scheme (also called the NDIS) provides support to Australians with disability, their families and carers. The NDIS provides all Australians under the age of 65 with a permanent and significant disability with the reasonable and necessary supports they need to enjoy an ordinary life.
The NDIS helps people with disability achieve their goals, including independence, community involvement, education, employment and health and wellbeing. As an insurance scheme, the NDIS takes a lifetime approach, investing in people with disability early to improve their outcomes later in life. It also provides people with disability, their family and carers with information and referrals to existing support services in the community.
Under the NDIS a range of support services are provided by non-government organisations. Families can choose who provides their child’s support and where they would like the supports delivered.
In the ACT, the NDIS works with two organisations to support people with disability to engage with the NDIS these are:
- EACH
(the Early Childhood Early Intervention Partner for families with children aged 0 – 6) and; - Feros Care (the local Area Coordinator Partner for people with disability aged 7 years and over).
Both organisations offer a wide range of support services for families and will help families in requesting access to the NDIS.
Contact information for the NDIS, EACH and Feros Care can be found here.
What Education Related Supports will the NDIS Fund?
All schools have legislative obligations to ensure that students with disability can access and participate in education on the same basis as other students. ACT Education engages in a range of practices that support schools in assisting students with disability in their educational attainment, including inclusive teaching and educational resources. These practices include:
- employing teachers, learning assistance, facilitating access to educational resources;
- learning-specific aids and equipment such as computers and text books;
- making reasonable adjustments to the school curriculum to enable access by students with disability;
- reasonable adjustments to school buildings, such as installing ramps, and fixed or non-transportable equipment such as hoist;
- transporting students for school activities such as excursions;
- day-to-day supervision of students while undertaking school activities including addressing behavioural issued while participating in school; and
- disability programs in schools for eligible students.
The NDIS has funding responsibility for some of the supports a student may need at school , such as:
- assistance with self-care at school related to the participant’s disability (provided by the ACT Education Directorate);
- specialist transport required because of the participants disability (provided by the ACT Special Needs Transport Program);
- equipment that is transportable such as a wheelchair, personal communication device or hearing aid (organised in collaboration with your child’s NDIS-funded team);
- specialised or intensive support to transition between schools, or from school to post-school options (organised in collaboration with your child’s NDIS-funded team).
If you think your child needs transport or personal care support at school, please speak with your child’s NDIS planner.
If a student is eligible to participate in the NDIS and accesses the Special Needs Transport program and/or personal care assistance at school, the cost of these services will appear in the student's NDIS package (however the NDIS does not transfer funding for this support to either the family or to the school, instead it is included as a part of the Territory-wide in-kind support provided to the NDIS by the ACT Government).