SDAS Assessment Victoria: Wait Times, Eligibility, and What to Do While You Wait

You have raised concerns with your child's school about their learning difficulties. The teacher agrees something is not right. The school mentions a "SDAS assessment" — and then tells you it could be a very long wait. Meanwhile, your child is sitting in a classroom without the support they need, falling further behind every week.

Here is what the Students with Disability Assessment Service actually does, who it is for, and — critically — why you do not need to wait for it before demanding that adjustments begin.

What SDAS Is

The Students with Disability Assessment Service (SDAS) is a government-funded assessment service provided by the Victorian Department of Education for students in government schools. It is not a general-purpose learning assessment — it has a specific, narrow purpose.

SDAS currently conducts two types of assessments:

Cognitive assessments for students suspected of having an Intellectual Developmental Disorder (IDD, commonly known as intellectual disability). These assessments determine IQ range and adaptive functioning, producing data that informs the Disability Inclusion (DI) Profile process and supports Tier 3 funding applications.

Severe language disorder assessments for students suspected of having a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) with critical educational needs. These assessments are conducted by speech-language pathologists contracted through the service.

SDAS does not assess for autism, ADHD, dyslexia, physical disability, anxiety, or most other conditions. Families seeking assessments for those conditions need to go through private allied health practitioners or paediatricians, or wait for public health pathways (which have their own significant wait times).

Who Is Eligible

SDAS assessments are available for students enrolled in Victorian government schools who:

• Are suspected of having an intellectual developmental disorder, based on observed functional difficulties in the classroom
• Are suspected of having a severe language disorder with critical educational needs
• Have not already had an equivalent private or government assessment within a relevant timeframe

The referral must come through the school — specifically, it must be initiated through the Student Support Group (SSG). Parents cannot self-refer directly to SDAS. The school requests the assessment through the Department's system after the SSG has agreed that an assessment is warranted.

Students in Catholic and independent schools cannot access SDAS. Families in those sectors need to access private assessments, or in some cases public health pathways through the Royal Children's Hospital or similar services.

Wait Times: What Families Are Experiencing

SDAS wait times have been a consistent concern across the Victorian advocacy community. The exact current wait varies by region and type of assessment — demand consistently outstrips capacity. Families report waiting anywhere from several months to over a year for a SDAS cognitive assessment.

This is compounded by a broader diagnostic bottleneck in Victoria. Private assessments for autism can take 1-2 years on waiting lists, with costs typically ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. Private psychological assessments for IQ testing run $800-$2,500 depending on the psychologist and the depth of assessment. Families who cannot afford private assessment are left in a holding pattern — unable to get the documentation that some schools treat as a prerequisite for adjustments.

The practical consequence for many children is that months or years pass without appropriate support, during which irreversible gaps in learning accumulate.

Your Child Does Not Need to Wait for Adjustments

This is the most important thing to understand about the SDAS process: the school's legal obligation to provide reasonable adjustments does not begin when the assessment is complete. It begins when the functional need is observable.

Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (DSE) — the federal legislation binding all Australian schools — schools must make reasonable adjustments for students with disability. The DSE does not require a diagnosis as a prerequisite. It requires evidence of a functional barrier to accessing education on the same basis as peers.

If your child is struggling significantly with learning tasks in a way that indicates an underlying disability, the school can and must:

• Register the student in the NCCD (Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability) under the appropriate adjustment level
• Begin providing Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice (QDTP) or Supplementary adjustments immediately, based on observed functional need
• Document the student's needs and adjustments in an IEP

The 2024 NCCD data shows that 27.6% of Victorian government school students — 182,866 children — received some level of educational adjustment. Schools are experienced in providing adjustments based on observed need, not just formal diagnoses. If a school refuses to provide adjustments until an assessment is complete, they are almost certainly breaching their DSE obligations.

Put this in writing. Request an SSG meeting and send a follow-up email documenting what adjustments were agreed to. If the school declines to provide adjustments in the interim, ask them to explain in writing on what legal basis they are withholding support.

Initiating the SDAS Referral Process

Because the referral must come through the school, the process works like this:

1. Request an SSG meeting in writing, with a specific agenda item: "Consideration of SDAS referral."
2. At the SSG, raise your concerns about the child's functional difficulties in the cognitive and/or language domains. Bring any existing documentation — reports from GPs, paediatricians, teachers' written observations, school report cards.
3. The SSG discusses whether an SDAS assessment is warranted. If agreed, the principal or their nominee initiates the referral through the Department.
4. Consent is required — parents must provide fully informed verbal consent for the referral to proceed.
5. Wait for scheduling — SDAS contacts the school to schedule the assessment once capacity is available.

Document every step of this process. Record when you requested the SSG meeting, when it was held, what was agreed, and when the referral was submitted. If the school delays initiating the referral, follow up in writing citing the date of the SSG agreement.

While You Wait: Building the Evidence Base

Even without a formal SDAS assessment, you can be building the evidence that will support the DI Profile and IEP process:

Request the school's written records. Under privacy legislation, you have the right to access school-held records about your child, including teacher observations, NAPLAN results, and any previous assessment reports.

Get a paediatric referral through your GP. A paediatrician's letter that documents observed developmental concerns — even without a formal IQ test — strengthens the evidence available to an SSG and supports the NCCD registration.

Document at home. Keep a dated log of observations — specific difficulties with tasks, behaviours, and how they change in different settings. Structured home observations carry more weight at SSG meetings than general descriptions of "they struggle."

Ask the school for a Specialist Teacher referral. Schools with appropriate resources may have access to a Specialist Teacher (Learning Difficulties) who can conduct informal assessments and produce reports that document functional learning needs without requiring a clinical psychologist.

Use the DET's Learning Difficulty resource. The Department of Education provides guidance for teachers on identifying and supporting students with learning difficulties — this guidance is also useful for parents in understanding what observable signs the school should be acting on.

If the School Refuses to Initiate a Referral

If the SSG agrees an SDAS referral is warranted and the school then fails to submit it, or if the SSG refuses to consider a referral that is clearly appropriate, you have several options:

• Put the request in writing to the Principal, citing the DSE 2005 and the school's obligation to identify and respond to students with disability
• Escalate to the DET Regional Office with a written complaint documenting the refusal
• Contact the ACD Victoria support line, which can advise on your rights and help draft formal communications

The Association for Children with a Disability (ACD) recorded a 160% increase in education-related advocacy calls over the five years leading to 2024. Assessment access delays and refusals are among the most common issues raised. You are not alone in this situation, and there are established pathways to resolve it.

If you are navigating the assessment process at the same time as fighting for classroom adjustments, the Victoria Disability Advocacy Playbook covers both — including the specific language for SSG meeting requests, interim adjustment demands, and the DI Profile preparation steps that follow once the assessment is complete.

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