Ms Cara Steinmetz:

The theory of keeping our children in the community is important. It is a difficult question for parents to answer. I always thought, from the day Noah was born, that one of the most important things for us would be that he grows up in our neighbourhood and community and that people know him. I feel, for example, based on his experience in mainstream school, the other boys in his class know him and know how to speak to him if they meet him in the street, at the bus stop or in the local shop. He is safer in a community where people understand how to engage with him. That has taken a lot of work with the school and you meet other parents at the school gate and try to create a normalised environment for the parents as well so they are comfortable communicating with a child that has a communication issue and then their children learn the same thing. When you take them out of that environment, over time the kids are less confident interacting with your child, therefore they become less and less a part of the community. The theory is an exception; we would like it to work, it is just not proving successful on the ground.