How to Prepare for an ACT SCAN Assessment Without an Advocate

You can prepare for an ACT SCAN assessment without a professional advocate if you understand the process, bring the right evidence, and know how to challenge the outcome when the descriptors don't reflect your child's actual needs. The SCAN (Student Centred Appraisal of Need) determines your child's resourcing band within the ACT Education Directorate — and the 2023 Auditor-General's report found that the information provided to families in preparation for SCAN meetings "does not reflect better practice." This guide closes that gap.

What the SCAN Assessment Actually Measures

The SCAN evaluates your child across ten areas of educational need, divided into two dimensions:

Access needs (what your child requires to physically participate in school):

• Communication — how they understand and are understood
• Mobility — physical capacity to navigate the school environment
• Personal care related to health and wellbeing
• Personal care related to dietary and medical conditions
• Safety — supervision required beyond standard behavioural management

Participation needs (what your child requires within the classroom and ILP):

• Social development
• Curriculum participation — the degree of adaptation required
• Communication — specific language development programs
• Behaviour — overt behaviours requiring targeted intervention
• Literacy and numeracy

A trained departmental moderator guides the SCAN meeting. Parents, school staff, and the moderator review documentary evidence and assign descriptor groupings across each area. Higher descriptors indicate more intensive support needs — and unlock more resources.

Why SCAN Preparation Matters So Much

The SCAN process is inherently deficit-focused. To secure adequate resourcing, you must document your child's limitations and support needs across all ten domains — not their strengths. This feels deeply uncomfortable for most parents, and it's the primary reason families underprepare.

Parents who walk into a SCAN meeting without structured evidence tend to defer to the school's characterisation of their child's needs. Schools, constrained by their own resource limitations, have an institutional incentive to describe needs conservatively. The result is a lower resourcing band, fewer Learning Support Assistant hours, and ILP goals that match the resources rather than the child's actual needs.

Step-by-Step SCAN Preparation

1. Build your evidence portfolio (2–3 weeks before the meeting)

Gather documentation across each of the ten SCAN domains. Not every domain will be relevant to your child, but for each one that is, you need specific evidence:

• Diagnostic reports from paediatricians, psychologists, or allied health professionals
• Functional capacity assessments — particularly from occupational therapists and speech pathologists
• School reports and teacher comments that describe difficulties in specific curriculum areas
• Behaviour incident records — request these from the school if they haven't been shared
• NDIS reports and therapy progress notes (if your child is on the NDIS)
• Your own observations — daily routines that require significant support, sensory triggers, communication breakdowns

2. Write a parent statement

The parent statement is your single most important document. It should cover:

• Your child's daily routine and the level of support required at home
• Specific situations where your child cannot function independently at school
• The gap between what the school is currently providing and what your child actually needs
• Any deterioration in your child's behaviour, mental health, or academic performance since the last review

Write in concrete terms. "My child needs constant supervision during transitions" is more useful than "my child struggles with change." Quantify wherever possible: "My child has had 12 behavioural incidents in the last term, resulting in three suspensions."

3. Prepare for each descriptor domain

For each SCAN domain relevant to your child, prepare a brief summary of:

• The current level of support being provided
• The level of support actually required
• The evidence supporting the higher level

The moderator will work through each domain in the meeting. If you've already mapped your evidence to the domains, you can respond immediately rather than searching through papers.

4. Know which descriptors you're targeting

The SCAN descriptor groupings determine the resourcing band. Higher groupings mean more intensive support. Before the meeting, review your child's current ILP and identify where the existing support level is insufficient. Your goal is to present evidence that accurately reflects the intensity of support required — not to minimise or exaggerate.

5. Attend the meeting with your documentation organised

Bring printed copies of all evidence, organised by domain. Have your parent statement printed separately. Take notes during the meeting — particularly if the moderator records a lower descriptor than you believe is accurate.

What to Do If You Disagree With the SCAN Outcome

If the descriptors recorded by the moderator don't reflect your child's actual needs, you have the right to dispute the outcome. During the meeting:

• State your disagreement clearly and ask that it be recorded in the meeting notes
• Reference the specific evidence that supports a higher descriptor
• Ask the moderator to explain the basis for the descriptor they've assigned

After the meeting:

• Send a follow-up email to the school's Case Coordinator and Principal, restating your disagreement and the evidence supporting your position
• Request a formal review of the SCAN outcome through the school, escalating to the Directorate's Disability Education team if the school does not respond
• If the low SCAN outcome is being used to deny ILP adjustments that are legally required under the DSE 2005, escalate through the ACT Education Directorate's complaints pathway

The legal obligation to provide reasonable adjustments exists independently of the SCAN resourcing band. A low SCAN score does not remove the school's obligation to make adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education 2005.

The Resource That Walks You Through This

The ACT Disability Support Blueprint includes a dedicated SCAN Preparation Checklist with evidence portfolio templates, parent statement prompts, and dispute steps for every stage of the process. It also covers the ILP meeting itself — scripts, deflection responses, and the email templates you send after the meeting to lock in what was agreed.

The Blueprint costs . A private advocate would charge $150–$300 per hour for SCAN preparation alone, and free advocacy services like AFI and ADACAS are triaging by crisis priority with multi-week waitlists.

Who This Is For

• Parents whose child has an upcoming SCAN assessment and who want to maximise the resourcing outcome
• Families whose child received a low SCAN score and is not getting enough Learning Support Assistant hours
• Parents preparing for their first SCAN meeting who don't understand the process or what evidence to bring
• Any ACT parent who wants to understand how the SCAN directly affects their child's ILP resourcing

Who This Is NOT For

• Parents whose child is enrolled in an ACT specialist school — specialist schools have their own resourcing model separate from the mainstream SCAN process
• Families seeking a diagnostic assessment — SCAN is a needs appraisal, not a clinical diagnostic tool
• Parents whose dispute has already escalated to the ACT Human Rights Commission — at that point, professional advocacy or legal representation is strongly recommended

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I don't prepare for the SCAN meeting?

You'll likely defer to the school's characterisation of your child's needs, which tends to be conservative. Schools face their own resource constraints and have an institutional incentive to describe needs at a lower level. Without your own evidence and parent statement, the moderator has less information to work with, and the resulting descriptor groupings may not reflect what your child actually requires.

Can I bring someone with me to the SCAN meeting?

Yes. You can bring a support person, a professional advocate, or an external therapist (such as your child's NDIS-funded speech pathologist or occupational therapist). Their clinical perspective strengthens the evidence base and helps ensure therapeutic recommendations are accurately reflected in the SCAN descriptors.

How often does SCAN happen?

SCAN is typically held in conjunction with a scheduled mid-year review of the student's ILP. The frequency depends on your child's needs and whether circumstances have changed significantly since the last appraisal. Parents can request a SCAN review if they believe the current resourcing band no longer reflects their child's needs.

Does a high SCAN score guarantee more support?

A higher SCAN descriptor grouping allocates more centralised Directorate resources to the school for your child's support. However, how those resources are implemented depends on the ILP — which is why preparing for both the SCAN and the ILP meeting matters. The Blueprint covers both processes in detail.

What if the school won't share behaviour incident records before the SCAN meeting?

Request them in writing, citing your right to access your child's educational records. If the school does not provide them before the SCAN meeting, note this refusal at the meeting and in your follow-up email. Incomplete evidence at a SCAN meeting can result in lower descriptors — the school's failure to share records should be documented as a factor.

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