One Plan for ADHD in South Australia: What Schools Must Provide

ADHD is one of the most common reasons South Australian parents end up fighting with schools. The child who can't stay seated, who shouts out, who loses assignments, who takes twice as long to start a task as everyone else — schools often respond to these behaviours as conduct problems. They're not. They're expressions of a neurodevelopmental disability, and the DSE reasonable-adjustment framework requires schools to make reasonable adjustments to address disability-related barriers, subject to unjustifiable hardship.

Here's what those adjustments should look like in a well-constructed One Plan.

Is ADHD a Disability Under SA Law?

Yes. ADHD is recognised as a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (DSE 2005) apply by reference to that framework. For school support, the relevant question is the condition's functional impact on access and participation, not diagnosis alone.

ADHD — particularly inattentive presentations and combined presentations — can substantially affect attention, working memory, task initiation, and executive function. These are not personality traits. They are functional impacts that can require educational adjustments under the DSE framework.

Schools should consider reasonable adjustments from documented functional impact even without a formal ADHD diagnosis; a diagnosis from a paediatrician or psychiatrist can strengthen the evidence for a higher NCCD adjustment level.

Which NCCD Level Applies to ADHD?

Under the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) framework, the adjustment level — which informs the school's funding and resourcing picture — depends on what the student actually requires, not just their diagnosis:

Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice (QDTP): A student with mild ADHD whose needs are met by standard responsive teaching (visual instructions on the board, flexible seating, chunked tasks) is likely at QDTP level. No formal One Plan is required, but reasonable adjustments must still be made subject to the unjustifiable-hardship framework.

Supplementary: A student who needs specific additional strategies at certain times — extended time for assessment tasks, access to a movement break schedule, a check-in with the inclusion coordinator — sits at Supplementary. A One Plan should be in place.

Substantial: A student with combined-type ADHD or ADHD with co-occurring conditions (such as anxiety, specific learning disability, or oppositional behaviour rooted in frustration) who needs significant adjustments across most of the school day. Significant SSO support, a structured behaviour support plan, and regular specialist involvement are typical.

Extensive: Rare for ADHD alone, but applicable when ADHD co-occurs with other significant conditions requiring comprehensive, individualised support across all settings.

The NCCD level matters because it informs the school's disability-related funding and resourcing picture. A student mis-categorised at QDTP when they genuinely need Substantial support means the school's planning and resourcing may fail to reflect that student's needs — and make it less likely to provide what's required.

What a One Plan for ADHD Should Include

A well-constructed One Plan for a student with ADHD should address the specific functional impacts of ADHD, not just generic "support" statements. Here's what to look for and push for:

Task and Attention Supports

• Chunked instructions — complex instructions broken into 1-2 steps at a time, given verbally and in writing or visually displayed
• Visual timetables and daily schedules posted at the student's desk or workstation
• Frequent check-ins by the classroom teacher or SSO (e.g., every 10-15 minutes during independent work) to refocus attention without drawing negative attention
• Proximity support — seating the student near the teacher or SSO rather than at the back of the room

Assessment Accommodations

• Extended time for all written assessment tasks — 25-50% additional time is common depending on severity
• Rest breaks during extended assessments
• Separate assessment venue where the noise and movement of other students does not disrupt performance
• Oral response options as an alternative to written responses where writing is the barrier, not the skill being assessed

These adjustments apply within the classroom (school-assessed tasks) and, for students in Years 11-12, through the SACE Special Provisions process for external examinations.

Behaviour and Regulation Supports

• Scheduled movement breaks — brief, structured movement opportunities (e.g., errand to the office, five minutes of physical activity) to discharge restlessness before it escalates
• A designated calm space the student can access with a non-punitive exit pass
• SSO-facilitated task initiation — an SSO prompts the start of tasks rather than waiting for the student to begin independently
• Positive behaviour reinforcement — specific, documented strategies for acknowledging and rewarding on-task behaviour

Organisation and Executive Function Supports

• Assignment tracking system — a physical diary or digital tool checked daily with SSO support
• Homework load adjustment where the cognitive load of completing homework is disproportionate to the student's capacity
• Materials management support — explicit teaching and prompting for packing bags, locating materials, and managing the transition from one class to another

NAPLAN Adjustments for ADHD

For NAPLAN testing, students with ADHD can access adjustments that mirror their usual classroom accommodations. These include:

• Extra time, as approved under the NAPLAN adjustments protocols
• Supervised rest breaks
• Separate testing space
• Use of assistive technology (if normally used in class)

Schools must document these adjustments in advance and arrange them through the NAPLAN administration process. If your child has been receiving extended time and a separate space in class all year, ask the school whether the same or an equivalent adjustment is available under the NAPLAN protocols. If the school hasn't arranged this, ask now — not the week before.

What "SSO Support" Actually Means

One of the most common frustrations for parents is being told their child has SSO (School Services Officer) support, then finding the SSO is shared across five students, rarely at your child's side, and not specifically following any individual support protocol.

A One Plan for a student with Substantial ADHD needs should specify:

• How many hours per day the SSO provides direct support to this student
• Which sessions (literacy, numeracy, assessment tasks, transitions)
• What the SSO's specific role is (task initiation, focus prompts, break facilitation, one-to-one reading support)

"SSO support as available" is not a plan. "SSO provides 45 minutes of direct task-facilitation support during morning literacy and maths sessions, four days per week, following the focus prompts protocol outlined in the behaviour support section" is a plan.

If the School Says There's Not Enough Funding

A school may tell you that IESP funding hasn't come through, or that the SSO budget is pooled under the new Supplementary Level Grant structure. These are real resource constraints to discuss, but they do not by themselves answer whether a requested adjustment is reasonable under the DSE framework.

The DSE framework applies to reasonable-adjustment decisions separately from the school's internal budget mechanics, subject to unjustifiable hardship. If the school cites funding to delay or reduce your child's adjustments, ask that the reason and the proposed alternative be documented formally in the Notes / Agreed Actions section of the One Plan. This creates a paper trail for escalation.

The South Australia Disability Support Blueprint includes a One Plan preparation checklist specifically for ADHD, along with the language you need to push back when schools offer vague support instead of specific, measurable adjustments.

The Bottom Line

ADHD is a recognised disability under SA law, and the DSE reasonable-adjustment framework applies to disability-related barriers in South Australian schools, subject to unjustifiable hardship. The One Plan can record those adjustments. Effective adjustments span attention support, assessment accommodations, behaviour regulation strategies, and executive function scaffolding. The distinction between "SSO support" and a specific, time-bound SSO protocol is the difference between a plan that sounds good and one that actually changes your child's school day.

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