School Refusing Reasonable Adjustments: What ACT Parents Can Do

You've asked. You've emailed. You've sat through ILP meetings. And the school keeps finding reasons why the adjustments your child needs can't happen right now, aren't in the budget, aren't really necessary, or would be too disruptive for the other students.

This is one of the most common and most exhausting situations ACT parents face. Here's what to do when a school is refusing or watering down reasonable adjustments — and how to start creating the leverage to change that.

Understand the Legal Baseline First

Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (DSE 2005) — the federal law that governs every school in Australia, including ACT public, Catholic, and independent schools — education providers are legally required to make reasonable adjustments so students with disability can participate in education on the same basis as their peers.

The only legal defense a school has to refuse a reasonable adjustment is "unjustifiable hardship." This is a formal, high legal threshold. It means the adjustment would fundamentally compromise the financial viability of the institution as a whole — not that it's inconvenient, or requires staff training, or isn't how the school usually operates. For a well-resourced ACT public school backed by Directorate funding, clearing that bar is extremely difficult.

This means that when a school refuses an adjustment without formally invoking and proving unjustifiable hardship, they are likely in breach of the DSE 2005.

Step 1: Stop Relying on Verbal Conversations

The most important shift you can make when a school is resisting adjustments is to move every communication into writing. Verbal assurances disappear. Written refusals become evidence.

After any conversation where a school declines a requested adjustment — whether in an ILP meeting or an informal chat with the teacher — send a follow-up email within 24 hours. State what was discussed, what you requested, and what the school said. Keep the tone factual and non-hostile:

"Following our meeting on [date], I understand that the school has declined to implement [specific adjustment] on the basis that [reason given]. Please let me know if this is an accurate summary. If the school is formally declining this request, I would like the refusal documented in my child's ILP or Student Support Group records."

This email does three things: it creates a written record, it gives the school an opportunity to correct a misunderstanding, and it signals that you are tracking commitments carefully.

Step 2: Request an Urgent ILP Review

If your child has an existing Individual Learning Plan (ILP) and the school is failing to implement agreed adjustments — or is refusing to add necessary adjustments at review — you have the right to trigger a formal ILP review at any time by contacting the designated Case Coordinator.

Make this request in writing. State that you are exercising your right under the ACT ILP Guidelines to request an urgent review, and specify which adjustments are not in place or are being refused. Request that the meeting include the classroom teacher, the principal or an executive delegate, and any external allied health professionals currently working with your child.

At the ILP meeting itself, if an adjustment is refused, insist that the refusal is documented in the meeting minutes. If the school claims unjustifiable hardship, ask them to articulate this in writing with the specific evidence they have assessed.

Step 3: Contact the ACT Education Directorate

If school-level processes have failed, the next step is a formal complaint to the central ACT Education Directorate. This is not the same as complaining to the principal — you are escalating past school leadership to the territory-level body.

Contact the Directorate's Families and Students, Complaints and Feedback Unit via their online form or by phone (02 6205 5429). Your complaint should include:

• A timeline of the adjustments requested and denied
• Copies of relevant emails and ILP documentation
• A clear statement of which DSE 2005 obligations you believe the school has breached

The Directorate's Complaints Management Policy requires all complaints to be taken seriously and responded to within defined timeframes, with explicit consideration of human rights obligations.

Step 4: Know When to Escalate to the ACT Human Rights Commission

If the Directorate complaint fails to produce enforceable adjustments, you can file a formal discrimination complaint with the ACT Human Rights Commission under the ACT Discrimination Act 1991.

The Commission can investigate complaints, review internal school documentation, and attempt resolution through formal conciliation. This stage is often where real movement happens — schools are far more responsive when facing a formal external process than when managing an internal complaint.

One critical point: completing the Human Rights Commission conciliation process is a mandatory legal prerequisite before you can escalate further to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT). Do not skip this step.

If conciliation fails, the Commission closes the matter and you have a strict 60-day window to request referral to ACAT, which has the power to issue binding orders against the ACT Education Directorate.

What Makes a Reasonable Adjustment Request Stronger

Not every adjustment request carries the same weight. Requests grounded in specific evidence — diagnostic reports, allied health assessments, documented functional impacts — are significantly harder for schools to dismiss than general preferences.

Adjustments tied directly to your child's NCCD level are particularly defensible. If your child is functioning at the Supplementary or Substantial level under NCCD criteria (which covers students whose needs go beyond quality differentiated teaching practice), there is a clear expectation that more intensive, individualized supports will be in place.

Adjustments that are commonly provided elsewhere for the same disability — for example, noise-cancelling headphones for a student with sensory processing challenges, extra processing time for a student with dyslexia, or a visual daily schedule for an autistic student — are difficult for a school to frame as unreasonable.

Document specifically why you need each adjustment: what happens to your child when it is absent, and what evidence supports its effectiveness. This turns a request into a case.

The Pattern to Watch For

In many ACT families' experiences, schools do not refuse adjustments directly or in writing. Instead, adjustments agreed in ILP meetings fail to be implemented in practice. The classroom teacher continues operating as before. The aide hours never materialize. The sensory break protocol sits in a document nobody follows.

This is informal non-compliance — and it is just as serious as a formal refusal. If agreed ILP adjustments are not being followed, document the gaps, raise them in writing with the Case Coordinator, and treat each instance of non-implementation as a formal non-compliance issue to be tracked.

The Australian Capital Territory Disability Support Blueprint includes email templates and meeting scripts specifically designed for the ACT context — including how to document a refusal, how to request written confirmation of an unjustifiable hardship claim, and how to prepare a Directorate complaint that gets taken seriously.

The Core Principle

Reasonable adjustments in ACT schools are not a favor the school grants at its discretion. They are a legal obligation. When a school refuses them without a formally substantiated unjustifiable hardship defense, they are in breach of federal law.

The most effective parents in this system treat every refusal as a compliance failure to document — not a discussion to continue having. Put it in writing. Ask for it in writing. And escalate when the written record shows the pattern is clear.

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