Ms Eileen O'Rourke:

It is just a quick point relating to something Senator Flynn said. She mentioned that we were coming with solutions. I will talk about special and primary schools together because, as the committee knows, special schools are seen as a subset of primary schools, which I do not always think is appropriate but I will go with it for this comment. We all know that our children are given phones at earlier and earlier. That means they are open to a toxic and destructive habit, which brings them down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, items on the dark web, all sorts of websites encouraging eating disorders and very harmful and destructive behaviours. That, combined with Covid-19, means there is a crisis brewing in our primary schools.

In special education, one of the two practical solutions we could put in place very quickly is administrative deputy principals for special schools. Our special schools do not really meet the numbers border for any of the general allocations given out to mainstream primary schools. This is because in special schools, it is about need rather than numbers. The other thing that would be incredibly helpful to special is the reintroduction of something along the lines of class hours. That was incredibly beneficial because of the flexibility built into it. We do not have substitution now for the first day of absenteeism, which is enormously problematic in special education where you cannot divide classes out among other teachers. It was mentioned earlier that we know who the caring person is in our schools and who can be there when a child needs someone that minute, when they are incredibly anxious or they are having a crisis or an anxiety or panic attack or whatever it is. You need the flexibility to have somebody there at that moment. Something along the lines of the class hours would give schools that flexibility.