A Canning Vale mother who convinced the Education Department to increase the amount of education assistant hours her autistic son was receiving is worried she is not alone and urged other parents to speak up.
Last week Jan McClean said her 13-year-old son Josh’s education assistant contact hours at Canning Vale College had dropped from 16 hours a week last year to eight this year.
She said the State Government’s hiring freeze caused the drop in hours because it meant schools couldn’t hire more EAs to help with the increased number of children requiring support.
Since speaking out Josh has started receiving 18 hours a week of EA time.
The spokesman for the department disputed the EA hours Ms McClean said Josh was receiving and said there was a miscommunication between her and the school.
He said he was receiving 15 hours per week, which has been lifted to 18 hours.
A spokesman for Education Minister Peter Collier said under the student centred funding model the school had autonomy over how many EA hours students received and generally whenever a school applied for extra EA support they received it.
Ms McLean said she didn’t believe everything was fine and while she was happy her son received more hours she encouraged other parents to speak up.
“All these other parents I just want to encourage them, go and speak to your principal or ring the minister, there’s nothing stopping you from picking up the phone.”
South Metropolitan Education executive director Sue Cuneo said the department provided the appropriate allocation under the student centred funding model for Josh in 2016.
“The school determined the best way to spend this to support Joshua’s needs,” she said.
“I have been assured by the principal Ron Bamford that Joshua received 15 hours of EA time per week during February 2016, and that this was increased to 18 hours as of March 1, 2016.
“I am concerned about the level of misunderstanding around the facts of this case and I will be working with the school to ensure there is much greater clarity in its communications with parents in future.
“Ultimately, the most important person is Joshua and I am pleased he is receiving an appropriate level of educational support.”
Ms McClean disputed comments there was a miscommunication between herself and the school.
