I was contacted by a concerned parent of an autistic child who was currently attending Western Autistic School in Niddrie. She advised us that her son was in his final year at Niddrie and that they were unsure where he would be attending school next year due to the high demand.

A local candidate for the upcoming Brimbank Council Elections Mr. Les Tarczon took this on as a issue and he has reported that he received overwhelming feedback about this issue as a serious matter within Brimbank, so he approached us and asked us to review this and see if we could help.

We decided that we would take this issue seriously and commence a campaign.

It has been highlighted the serious issue of the lack of Special Development Schools within the Brimbank area.

We are aware that there are many students out there who have severe to profound autism that unfortunately, don’t have the ability to attend most schools, they require the dedicated support of a Special Development School.

Brimbank’s surrounding municipalities including Melton, Hume and Maribyrnong all have two Special Development Schools within their municipalities whereas, in Brimbank they only have the one Sunshine Special Development School located in Ivory Court, West Sunshine.

Western Autistic School located in both Niddrie and Laverton currently have students residing within Brimbank who are currently attending their final year in Western Autistic School.

Unfortunately, Western Autistic Schools are only available for each student for a maximum of four years, before students are required to move to an alternative school based on their capabilities.

Our education system in Victoria has a structured scale which determines what type of school is appropriate for each student who has special needs such as a student with autism. If a child is deemed to have an IQ of above 70 they are deemed to be suitable for a mainstream school, if a child has an IQ between 50 – 70 they are deemed to be required to attend a Special School. Now if the child’s IQ is below 50 they are deemed to require extensive support which can only be provided by a Special Development School.

With Brimbank’s only Special Development School, Sunshine SDS being all filled up with an extensive waiting list of more than two years, students in their final year at Western Autistic School are left needing to travel many kilometres to a suitable school way outside their residential area meaning long travel time which to a majority of these children is extremely overwhelming and challenging for both the child and their families.

This is a serious issue and one that requires urgent government attention. Either allow children residing in Brimbank to remain at Western Autistic School until a place in Sunshine becomes available, or urgently build a second Special Development School within Brimbank.

We as an organisation are well aware of the policy of Western Autistic School due to many parents within our organisation including us have all been through similar situations some of us more than twenty years ago. So we know that the policy cannot be changed.

Therefore, the only option available is for the State Government to build a second Special Development School within Brimbank and this must be done as a matter of urgency.

As a organisation we have chosen to take on this campaign as a serious issue and we will continue with the fight to campaign the State Government to move swiftly to ensure that a second Special Developed School is built within Brimbank.

Please get behind us on this campaign if you are one of these affected families not being able to attend the appropriate school within your area please reach out to us by sending us your story so that we can build a strong case.

Shortly we will have a partition for everyone to sign calling for the State Government to urgently build this second school. Keep an eye out on this website and our social media.