ACT Inclusive Education Strategy 2024: What It Means for Parents of Kids with Disability

In 2024, the ACT Government launched its Inclusive Education: A Disability Inclusion Strategy for ACT Public Schools 2024-2034 — a ten-year plan that promises to fundamentally transform how public schools support students with disability. It is the most significant policy shift in the ACT education system in a decade. Understanding what it commits to, what it actually changes right now, and where the gaps remain is essential if you want to use it as an advocacy tool.

What the Strategy Actually Says

The 2024-2034 Inclusive Education Strategy is built on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) — an educational framework that designs learning environments to be accessible from the outset, rather than retrofitting accommodations after the fact. The strategy explicitly commits the ACT Directorate to:

• Moving away from a deficit-based, diagnostic model to a strengths-based, functional-needs model
• Dismantling attitudinal and systemic barriers at school level
• Ensuring students with disability are the "first thought, not an afterthought" under the Students First policy
• Reducing reliance on formal medical diagnoses to unlock support
• Piloting Inclusion Coaches in schools (starting with the Tuggeranong network) to train educators in UDL

The strategy's stated goal is systemic reform, not incremental improvement. It explicitly criticises the ACT's historical reliance on "passionate individuals" to carry the burden of inclusion, calling instead for embedded, structural change.

What Has Actually Changed for Families

The strategy is aspirational. Several components are already in motion.

Inclusion Coaches: The Directorate is piloting school-based Inclusion Coaches in the Tuggeranong network to provide real-time professional development for teachers. This is meaningful if it works — it addresses one of the root causes of the implementation gap (teachers who understand policy but lack classroom strategies for UDL).

Restructured Allied Health Service: The former Network Student Engagement Teams (NSET) were restructured. Specialist teachers were redistributed into schools, while allied health professionals — occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, and senior psychologists — were consolidated into the Allied Health Service (AHS). The AHS now operates as an internal consultancy.

Shift toward functional need: The strategy signals a move to decouple support from formal medical diagnosis, allowing students with evident functional needs to receive adjustments before a diagnostic report is finalised. This addresses a key inequity the 2023 ACT Auditor-General's report identified: that private assessments in Canberra cost between $1,500 and $3,000, meaning wealthier families could effectively "purchase" the diagnoses needed to compel school accommodations.

Where the Gap Between Policy and Classroom Reality Persists

The strategy is real. So is the implementation gap.

Workforce shortages: The ACT faces an acute shortage of school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists. The AHS cannot be everywhere at once. Families report that internal AHS referrals can take months — and parents cannot refer directly. Access is mediated through the school principal or DECO (Disability Education Coordination Officer), meaning a reluctant school administrator can slow or block the referral pathway.

NCCD compliance burden: The 2023 Auditor-General's report found that while approximately 20.1% of ACT students were receiving adjustments under the NCCD, the compliance burden on teachers was substantial. Teachers documenting NCCD evidence were spending time on paperwork instead of the adjustments themselves. The strategy does not directly resolve this tension.

Catholic and independent schools: The 2024-2034 strategy applies to ACT public schools. Catholic schools (CECG — 56 schools, 21,000+ students) and independent schools (AISACT) are bound by the same federal DDA and DSE 2005 obligations, but the Directorate's internal strategy does not govern them. Catholic school leadership has publicly stated that current funding models do not adequately support complex disabilities, particularly at secondary level.

How to Use the Strategy in Your Advocacy

The most powerful aspect of the 2024-2034 strategy for parents is what it commits to on paper. When a school uses language like "we're doing the best we can" or "inclusion is a journey," the strategy gives you a concrete counter:

On UDL: "The ACT Inclusive Education Strategy 2024-2034 commits the Directorate to Universal Design for Learning, which means designing learning environments to be accessible from the outset. Can you tell me which UDL principles are currently embedded in [child's name]'s classroom environment?"

On diagnosis requirements: "The strategy commits to decoupling support from formal medical diagnoses. My child has documented functional needs [cite the assessment or teacher observation]. What support is being provided while we wait for a formal assessment?"

On the 'Students First' policy: "The Directorate's Students First policy states that students with disability must be the first thought, not an afterthought. I would like to understand how this principle is reflected in the current ILP."

This approach — using the school's own policy commitments as leverage — is far more effective than emotional appeals. Administrators who can dismiss a frustrated parent find it harder to dismiss their own published strategy documents.

What the Strategy Does Not Fix

The strategy does not:

• Override a principal's gatekeeping of AHS referrals
• Guarantee a shorter wait for occupational therapy or speech pathology
• Change the assessment cost burden for families who need private reports quickly
• Apply to Catholic or independent schools (though the federal DSE 2005 still does)
• Create automatic enforcement mechanisms if individual schools ignore it

This is where knowing the full escalation ladder matters. The strategy provides policy leverage. When that leverage fails at school level, the escalation path runs through the ACT Education Directorate's complaints unit, then the ACT Human Rights Commission, and ultimately to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal or the Australian Human Rights Commission for federal DDA complaints.

The ACT Disability Advocacy Playbook is built around the full ACT landscape — the 2024 strategy, the DSE 2005, the Human Rights Act 2004, and the territory's specific escalation pathways — not just the policy documents.

Key resources:

• ACT Inclusive Education Strategy 2024-2034: act.gov.au
• ACT Education Directorate (Inclusive Education Division): 02 6205 6925
• Advocacy for Inclusion: 02 6257 4005 | advocacyforinclusion.org

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