ACIE Statement: Queensland risks condemning generations of students to segregated schooling 

Queensland risks condemning generations of students to segregated schooling

Monday 30 June 2025

The Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education (ACIE — a national alliance of 25 organisational members representing people with disability, families, educators, students and allies, with a combined reach of more than 1.2 million Australians) is deeply alarmed by the Queensland Government’s recent announcement to build six new special schools.  

This decision undermines Australia’s international human rights obligations and risks entrenching a dual-track and discriminatory education system that separates, rather than includes, children and young people with disability.

Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which affirms the right of every child to inclusive education. The UN has made it explicitly clear that segregated education settings, including special schools, breach this fundamental human right.

Further, decades of research have consistently shown that all students – disabled and non-disabled alike – experience better academic, social, and developmental outcomes when they are supported to learn and grow together from the early years and on.

Inclusive schools build inclusive communities, but the opposite is also true. Data shows students with disability who attend special schools are 85% more likely to follow a ‘polished pathway to segregation’ and end up in sheltered employment and group home living.

Continuing to invest in exclusion is an unjustifiable step backwards, and we are unsettled by the Queensland Government’s decision to purposefully ignore years of advocacy from the disability community and clear recommendations from the Disability Royal Commission.

This cannot be the path forward for Australia.

ACIE urges all State and Territory governments to be bold and invest in building the capacity of mainstream schools to include all students.

It is beyond time to commit, fully and urgently, to a genuinely inclusive education system that upholds the rights and dignity of every child and young person.

Media:
Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education
Email: info@acie.org.au, stephanie.gotlib@allmeansall.org.au or media@cyda.org.au  
Website: www.acie.org.au

About ACIE

ACIE is a national coalition of 25 not-for-profit organisations and has a combined representative membership of over 1.2 million. It brings together organisations with significant expertise in inclusive education and disability advocacy, and spans national and State and Territory based organisations, disability advocacy organisations, student and youth organisations, educators, and family and carer support organisations.

We invite individuals and organisations to use this position statement widely and join us in helping shape a future where the delivery of therapy supports play a role in promoting an inclusive education system.

Members of ACIE

The following national and State and Territory based organisations are Members of ACIE and support its Mission:

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