Boy has no schooling for 4 years

Matthew Hayes, 15, from Kaiwaka, has been excluded from school because of his severe learning disabilities. Picture / Richard Robinson

A 15-year-old Northland boy has missed out on most of four years of school because of an apparent funding gap for students with behavioural problems.

Matt Hayes, of Kaiwaka, has not been in a classroom regularly since he was 11. He has been placed in a series of "alternative education" arrangements, but has not learned to read and write beyond the level of a 6- or 7-year-old.

This year he has not been to school at all.

Fourteen parents who took the Government to the High Court to assert the right of children with special needs to education say Matt's case, and others like it, may force them back to court because the Government has failed to carry out the terms of a settlement reached in 2003.

Rodney College principal Julie Small said Matt had been free to return to school this year after he was suspended last year when he took a pistol-sized ball-bearing gun loaded with plastic pellets to school.

But Matt's parents, Sheryl and Steve Hayes, said the college's resource teacher of learning and behaviour told them "not to bother bringing him this year because they had nothing to offer him".

They said he had also been refused admission at Otamatea High School in Maungaturoto and at the country's only residential school for boys with intellectual and social difficulties, Halswell College in Christchurch.

He has been diagnosed as having a mild form of autism called Asperger syndrome, plus attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia.

But his disabilities are not severe enough to qualify for ongoing or reviewable resourcing schemes (ORRS), so schools are expected to educate him out of their bulk funding, including a special education grant which is allocated on the basis of their total student roll and income decile rating.

Sandy Bowman, from Teenadders, an Orewa agency for young people with ADD, said there had been a huge increase in cases of ADD and Asperger syndrome, partly because they were now being recognised.

"The problem that I've seen time and time again is that these kids do not fall under any category for help if they are not exhibiting extreme behaviour but have complex difficulties regarding communicating and understanding," she said.

Mrs Hayes said she first took Matt to the Marinoto clinic at North Shore Hospital when he was 18 months old because he was hyperactive.

"I was told, 'it's your first child, you're 21, you don't know what you're doing'," she said.

Mr and Mrs Hayes later had three other children who are all doing well.

Matt attended Browns Bay School, then Kaiwaka School, but his parents withdrew him when the school started ringing them to take him home almost as soon as they had dropped him off.

He transferred to a small school at Oruawharo, but that school closed.

An artistic boy, he was placed into "alternative education" at age 11 with a woman who made garden ornaments. "He had very little education at her place," Mrs Hayes said.

"After two months she didn't have time for him every day so I had him at home for three months."

The next year he started in Year 9 at Rodney College. He said he was in a class there for only four weeks and was then put in a separate room with a teacher aide.

His mother said the young male teacher aide could not control him.

Later he was given another "alternative education" placement for two hours a day with a bone carver.

Mrs Small said the college also tried to get respite help for Mrs Hayes because Mr Hayes, a house painter, was seriously injured in an assault outside a Browns Bay tavern. She said this offer was rejected.

Matt was suspended until the end of last year because of the gun incident, but Mrs Small said he was "absolutely welcome" to come back this year.

"We went everywhere as a school to try to get money for intervention, but Matt is not prepared to meet the school half-way and there isn't the support from home to make him do that."

Tangaroa College science teacher John Minto, a spokesman for the 14 families, said the Government had not carried out its promise to identify and act on "gaps between resourcing and the needs of students".

But Education Minister Trevor Mallard said reports had identified a gap in support for students with high needs but not fitting the ORRS criteria, and the Government had responded with Supplementary Learning Support. This provides one-tenth of a fulltime teacher plus up to 45 specialist hours a year for 1000 students.

Asperger syndrome
* Asperger syndrome is a milder variant of autistic spectrum disorder. Features can vary widely from one person to another; there is no single feature that defines it.
* Asperger syndrome is believed to affect one in 300 people.
* People with autistic spectrum disorders, such as Asperger, have difficulties with social relationships. They may appear aloof or passively accept social contact, while rarely making spontaneous approaches.
Source: Autism NZ