NDIS vs School in the ACT: Who Pays for What, and How to Get Therapists In

The NDIS-school boundary is the single most common source of confusion, argument, and systemic buck-passing for ACT families. Your child is NDIS-funded. Your child's school says they cannot bring the OT in. The school says it is an NDIS responsibility. The NDIS plan says it funds community participation, not school. And your child sits in the middle of this bureaucratic standoff with no support from either side.

This is not a grey area in theory. The law draws a reasonably clear line. The problem is that both systems exploit the ambiguity at the edges — and families pay the price. Here is how the boundary actually works, and what to do when either system tells you no.

The Legal Division of Responsibility

The dividing line is the purpose of the support, not the type of support.

The NDIS funds: Supports that build daily living skills, community participation, and general functional capacity across all settings. The NDIS explicitly will not fund supports intended for educational attainment, curriculum access, or school-based learning. This exclusion is in the NDIS Act.

The school funds: Reasonable educational adjustments required for the student to access the curriculum on the same basis as non-disabled peers. This obligation is in the Disability Standards for Education 2005 and applies to every ACT school — public, Catholic, and independent.

Clear examples:

• LSA time to help a student access a maths lesson → School
• A customised wheelchair for mobility → NDIS
• Physiotherapy to address a physical condition → NDIS
• Environmental modifications (quiet room, sensory space) at school → School
• OT to build general fine motor skills at home → NDIS
• OT to support fine motor skills specifically required for classroom writing tasks → School (at minimum, shared)

The ambiguity lives in that last category: occupational therapy, speech pathology, and other therapeutic supports that address functional needs appearing in both the classroom and the community. Schools frequently push all of this onto the NDIS. The NDIS frequently pushes back.

The ADHD Funding Gap

Parents of children with ADHD face a specific and deeply frustrating version of this problem. ADHD typically does not qualify for NDIS funding unless there is functional impairment significant enough to meet the NDIS access criteria. Many children with ADHD — even significantly affected ones — are ineligible for the NDIS.

At the same time, ACT public schools generally do not provide a dedicated on-site OT or LSA for ADHD, leaving the implementation of classroom accommodations to overstretched classroom teachers. Parents in Canberra forums consistently report paying out of pocket for OT while simultaneously discovering the school will not bring that therapist onto school grounds.

This gap is exactly what the school's NCCD obligations should cover. A student with ADHD whose attention and regulatory difficulties constitute a Social/Emotional disability under the NCCD framework is entitled to school-funded adjustments — even without NDIS funding.

Getting NDIS Therapists Into ACT Schools

If your child is NDIS-funded and you want their therapist to work with them during school hours, the process in the ACT is specific and has real requirements.

Both the ACT Education Directorate (for public schools) and the Association of Independent Schools of the ACT (AISACT) have formal policies on external NDIS providers. School principals have discretion to approve or deny access. Approval is not automatic.

The principal must be satisfied that:

1. The therapy actively supports the student's learning goals and aligns with the ILP without disrupting the curriculum
2. The provider meets compliance requirements: public liability insurance of at least $20 million, a current Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) check, and completion of required site inductions and child protection training
3. The school has the physical capacity to accommodate sessions without disrupting other students

How to Make the Request the School Cannot Refuse

The schools most likely to approve NDIS therapist access are those where parents have:

• Framed the request as aligned with the student's ILP goals
• Provided documentation of the therapist's compliance credentials upfront
• Agreed to a specific session structure that minimises disruption (e.g., lunch breaks, specialist lesson periods, withdrawal room)
• Established a formal Information Sharing Agreement between the therapist and the school

When making the request in writing, include:

• The therapist's name, organisation, and NDIS provider registration number
• A copy of or reference to the therapist's WWVP clearance
• The specific ILP goal the sessions will address
• A proposed schedule that does not require withdrawal from core learning time
• A request for the Information Sharing Agreement to be established

If the school refuses access on the grounds that "all educational adjustments are being provided internally," that claim is legally significant — it means the school is asserting it is meeting all DSE 2005 obligations through its own Allied Health Service. Ask for that assertion in writing. If the AHS is providing adequate support, the waiting time for that support should be documented.

Independent School NDIS Policies (AISACT)

Independent schools in the ACT operate under the AISACT's own guidelines for managing NDIS-funded external service providers. While these schools have more autonomy than public schools, they are bound by the same federal DSE 2005 obligations. The AISACT guidelines set out specific physical arrangements for on-site sessions, including separate room requirements, supervision expectations, and session timing.

Independent school principals may exercise more discretion but face the same legal exposure under the DDA if they deny access on discriminatory grounds. Frame your request specifically around the ILP goal alignment, not around the therapy type, when approaching independent schools.

When the School Refuses Entirely

If a school refuses NDIS therapist access and the refusal appears to be discriminatory — not based on legitimate operational grounds — the escalation path is:

1. Request the refusal in writing with stated reasons
2. Write to the principal again, citing the DSE 2005 and the specific ILP goal the therapy supports
3. For public schools: escalate to the ACT Education Directorate
4. For all schools: file a complaint with the ACT Human Rights Commission under the Discrimination Act 1991
5. For the most serious cases: Australian Human Rights Commission DDA complaint

Free advocacy support is available from Advocacy for Inclusion (02 6257 4005), who assist with exactly this type of NDIS-school dispute in Canberra.

The ACT Disability Advocacy Playbook includes specific letter templates for requesting NDIS therapist access, reframing the NDIS-school boundary in writing, and escalating if access is denied — all referenced to the ACT and AISACT policies your school actually uses.

Key contacts:

• NDIS: ndis.gov.au
• ACT Education Directorate: 02 6205 6925 | [email protected]
• AISACT: ais.act.edu.au
• Advocacy for Inclusion: 02 6257 4005

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