All Means All has made a submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD Committee) about Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and Australia’s obligations under it, which assisted in the Committee’s formulation of the final List of Issues adopted last month at the Committee’s 18th session and which will form the basis of a review of Australia’s compliance with the CRPD in 2018.
All Means All is pleased to see its submission reflected in the final List of Issues, particularly items 24 and 26 which request Australia to provide specific student data separated into segregated and non-segregated settings and an explanation of how the new needs based funding model supports implementation of an inclusive education system especially in light of the CRPD Committee’s calls in General Comment No.4 for the transfer of resources from segregated to inclusive education settings. All Means All also raised the recommendations of the Senate Education and Employment References Committee’s 2016 Report into education of students with disability and the impact of the Disability Standards for Education.
The following are the items from the final List of Issues that specifically relate to Article 24 and inclusive education:
24. Please provide updated data on the participation, completion rate, suspensions, use of restraint and seclusion of students with disabilities in both segregated and inclusive classroom settings, disaggregated by age, gender, disability, location and ethnicity.
25. Please detail the measures taken to:
(a) Implement the recommendations in the Senate Education and Employment References Committee’s 2016 report, “Access to real learning: the impacts of policy, funding and culture on students with disability”;
(b) Conduct research into the effectiveness of current education inclusion policies and the extent to which the Disability Standards for Education (2005) are being implemented in each state and territory;
(c) Increase funding to ensure the provision of reasonable accommodation for inclusive and quality education;
(d) Increase the accessibility of tertiary education facilities and courses for all persons with disability, particularly deaf persons and persons with intellectual disabilities.
26. Please explain how the State party’s new education funding model supports progressive implementation of article 24 of the Convention, including in the light of the Committee’s general comment No. 4 (2016) on the right to inclusive education, which calls for the transfer of resources from segregated to inclusive education settings.
All Means All’s submission also stated its support for the broader List of Issues submission by Disabled People’s Organisations Australia and thanked the Committee for the opportunity to provide a submission specifically in relation to Article 24 of the CRPD.
You can download All Means All’s submission below:
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