An Auckland mum faces a daily struggle trying to get the best education for her special needs kids. Photo / Thinkstock
An Auckland mum faces a daily struggle trying to get the best education for her special needs kids. Photo / Thinkstock
Linda, a mum from Auckland, has a daily struggle trying to get the best education for her special needs kids. She tells her story.
Dealing with the special education system has been one of the most stressful, exhausting, and yet pointless experiences of my life.
As a mother of twospecial-needs children, I am no stranger to high stress levels and finding ways to cope with challenging situations. I'm also trained in law, so I know how to assert my rights. But when you're fighting for your own children - and you live the consequences of them not receiving necessary supports every day - that fight can drain your resources and leave you broken.
2015 was the start of my youngest son's schooling. It should have marked a happy new stage in both our lives; I was particularly keen to return to paid work. Unfortunately my son didn't settle; he hated the classroom, cried a lot and constantly tried to escape. He was assigned a one-on-one teacher aide, who did such an appalling job that one day my son ran home across a busy road during school time, while under her watch. Instead of treating this as their own failure, the school used this as evidence - in a meeting that was also attended by a Ministry of Education employee - that my son should never be at school without an aide, and so was to continue to only have half days (that was all the aide funding they could get). The principal told me at this same meeting that other parents didn't want their children to be in my son's class. I was distraught.
That is just a taste of what my family went through. Eventually we decided to pull both kids out of that school, and after much research, enrolled them in a private school (thanks to financial support of extended family) where they are both now happy and learning well, and attending full school days. Government resources are still inadequate; we've had to look into paying for teacher aides ourselves, but at least my children are wanted there.
This has taken an immense personal toll. Through dealing with the school and the Education Ministry, I ended up deeply depressed and suffered frequent anxiety and panic attacks. The Ministry of Health footed those bills. I'm still recovering, and still angry at the way the Government and the schools treat families like ours. There needs to be accountability for what they are doing to some of the most vulnerable families, and I don't see anyone accepting that responsibility.
