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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 285 asked in the Legislative Council on 12 April 2018 by Hon Tjorn Sibma

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

SCHOOL OF SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS: BEHAVIOUR AND ENGAGEMENT

285. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the Minister for Education and Training:

I refer to the Department of Education's behaviour management program in the Busselton area.

(1) How many students in the electorate of Vasse or the City of Busselton, as appropriate, have been referred to and then taken on by the School of Special Educational Needs: Behaviour and Engagement in the past 12 months?

(2) What is the process following referral to SSEN:BE?

(3) What is the justification for exclusion from the school environment and engagement within SSEN:BE?

(4) What is the success rate of students referred to SSEN:BE and how is success measured?

Hon SAMANTHA ROWE replied:

On behalf of the minister, I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. This answer has been provided by the Minister for Education and Training.

(1) Twelve students have been referred, six of whom have been provided with intensive support by the School of Special Educational Needs: Behaviour and Engagement.

(2) Information is collected from the school, the school psychology service and, where applicable, regional, department and/or other external services, to assess the specific needs of the referred student. A tailored response or intervention is then developed and implemented.

(3) Students with complex and challenging behaviour may require an intervention that provides direct support delivered on a SSEN:BE site for a time. This is determined in consultation with all relevant parties, including the student's parents. Reasons for supporting a student off-site may include the risk they pose to the safety of others, risk to their own safety, fear and/or high anxiety, or the need to assess the student's needs away from the environment that triggers his or her negative or extreme behaviours.

(4) Each intervention is tailored for the individual student through a needs assessment. Individual goals form the basis of the intervention plan and success is measured against these defined goals. Hence, no one metric is used to measure the overall success of SSEN:BE's interventions. One measure SSEN:BE monitors for students with the most challenging of behaviours is suspension history. The cohort of students who received the highest amount of intensive SSEN:BE support in the 2016 and 2017 school years have had a significant reduction in suspensions. Average suspension data for this cohort in 2015 was 20.42 days, but in 2017 this dropped to 5.04 days. SSEN:BE also surveys school principals every two years. In the most recent survey, 86.6 per cent of principals who had accessed SSEN:BE services indicated they would continue to do so to assist meeting the behaviour and engagement support requirements of high-needs students.