I'm just curious if anyone else has successfully applied for gov't school funding. My daughter just started prep this year and was successful in obtaining funding. She has verbal dyspraxia and has also suffered from selective mutism (due to anxiety), however she seems to be all but recovered from this now. We applied for funding under 'severe behaviour', due to her anxiety, rather than under the language category, as we were told her language delay was not severe enough to warrent funding in this area.
We recently found out that we were successful in securing funding. We had a meeting with her school (who have been wonderful and supportive to us!) and worked out how we want her funding spent. Her class will have a full-time aide (not just to help her, but to support the entire class so her teacher can spend more time one-on-one with all children), her teacher (and aid) will attend an upcoming course to help her with her articulation, and the school will privately fund time with her speech therapist to work with her teacher and her aid on how to best support her in the classroom. I should mention that there are two other children in her class that also received funding and so the $ is being pooled together to pay for the full-time aid.
Anyhow, I'm just curious if there are many other families out there that have received funding and what you are spending the $$ on. This is all new to me, however I am very impressed with all the support offered to my daughter through her school.
In NSW the school applies for the funding and the teacher and school decide how it will be spent. Funding is getting harder and harder to get and the amt is also getting less too so its a real bonus to get any funding. Mostly in NSW you get enough for 10 weeks of teachers aide time then you have to reapply unless it is a very evry severe problem.
Mason has just has his funding application approved. He has Aspergers Disorder and it was borderline if he'd actually qualify. It's not a lot but he is approved for 10 hours a week for an intergration aide to come into his class to help the teacher.
At this stage he needs help to develop his auditory learning skills as he is a visual learner. That is likely to change though as he gets older though and he may need more specialist help then.
Hi,
Thanks for the replies. We live in Victoria. My daughter qualified for level 2 funding (Level 1 is the lowest and I think it goes to level 4 or 5), which equates to about 11.5K per year of funding. In Victoria, the parents have the final say on how the money is spend as long as it meets the guidelines. I very much want to work with the school in determining how to spend the money, however I'm glad that they wanted input from me and agreed to all of my suggestions.
I was also told that funding was hard to get and we probably wouldn't qualify, but I'm glad we went for it anyway. It is a lot of paperwork, which is a pain, but worth it in the end. My daughter is quite fortunate as with 3 funded children in one class, there is a lot of extra resources to use.
My son has funding. It's a blessing- there is one other child in his class and between them they have enough funding for her to be there full time. I had worries about my DS getting lost or absconding from school- and we used the aid to follow him a bit during lunch break in his first year.
Hello Mary,
I have just read your post and was wondering about your daughter's selective mutism. Did she grow out of it, or did she have to see a psychologist? My son is 5 and I think he has selective mutism, and I am unsure what to do. The school psychologist has advised me to take him to childrens hospital, but I don't think that is the answer. He hasnt spoken to teachers or other students at school. He only to talks to immediate family members and doesnt have any speech problems.
Thanks,
Lynne (new member)
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Anyone else receive gov't school funding?
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