Inclusive Education: Let All Kids Learn Together
19 August 2025
Last month, the Queensland Government announced plans for six new special schools in south-east Queensland. The decision has been met with criticism from disability advocates, educators, and human rights experts. Creating more specialist schools goes against recommendations made by the Disability Royal Commission (DRC) to end segregation and start building inclusive systems.
Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess made a statement that said Queensland’s move ignores clear evidence and expert advice on the benefits of inclusive education. The Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education (ACIE) warned the plan could “condemn generations of students to segregated schooling” and undo years of progress.
Timeframe and transition plan to phase out segregated employment
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability Final report Volume 7 relates to Inclusive education, employment and housing.
It states:
A rights-based approach requires a safe, quality and inclusive school system for all students with disability.
Australian schools do not consistently deliver an inclusive education that protects students with disability from violence, abuse and neglect. Students with disability face multiple barriers to inclusive education, underpinned by negative attitudes and low expectations.
A safe, quality and inclusive education can only be delivered through significant transformation of the school system.
PWDA’s response to the DRC urged governments to provide adequate resourcing and funding to support the transition to, and better equip mainstream schools to provide, inclusive education within 5–10 years. Money spent financing segregated schools is money that should be spent on improving inclusive classrooms.
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.
Let Kids Learn Together Campaign
This is where the Let All Kids Learn Together campaign originated. The campaign is calling for a National Roadmap for Inclusive Education. The roadmap involves a coordinated, well-resourced plan to end segregated schooling and make inclusion real.
The campaign is calling on government to:
- Invest in more teachers and reduce class sizes.
- Fund specialist disability support staff in every school.
- Provide inclusive teaching resources.
- Train all staff in disability rights and inclusive education.
National Roadmap for Inclusive Education
This evidence-based plan sets out a step-by-step path to phase out segregated schooling and build a system where all students learn together.
It outlines short, medium, and long-term actions including
- increasing the number of teachers and support staff
- providing inclusive teaching resources
- embedding disability rights and inclusive education training for all staff.
It also calls for strong accountability measures, accessible curricula, and the removal of discriminatory practices.
The Roadmap is a blueprint for ensuring no student is left behind during the transition to an inclusive education system.
The Outcomes
When schools are truly inclusive, and teachers have the resources they need to support all learners, everyone benefits.
Inclusive education means students with disability have equal access to learning, friendships, self-expression, and support for them to achieve their own goals. They are better equipped to independently engage with all aspects of community life after school.
Students without disability can develop, experience and demonstrate respect, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the strength of community diversity. They recognise their peers with disability as individuals who have diverse abilities, like themselves. Inclusive education fundamentally is about affirming the human rights of all.
The time to act is now.
How to get involved
You can:
- Email Australia’s Education Ministers
- Sign the inclusive education pledge with CYDA
- Learn more about the ACIE suggested National Roadmap for Inclusive Education
#LetAllKidsLearnTogether #InclusiveEducation #DisabilityInclusion