By Jolene Ogle
NOOSA families with special needs children who rely on bus services to get to school are facing an uncertain future as the roll-out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) inches closer.
The cancellation of local bus contracts has caused concern among parents and sparked outrage among service providers such as Ace Buses director Jane Stevens who has launched a petition to call on the Government to provide more information on the changes to transport for special needs students.
“The kids need stability and continuity,” she said.
“We have emergency plans for the kids and we’ve formed relationships with the parents. This is ludicrous.”
Ms Stevens said her company received a letter in August advising the bus operators that their contracts would cease on 31 December 2019 and since then Ms Stevens has only received word that the Government is “working on” the issue and nothing further.
Ms Stevens has gained support for her petition from a number of politicians including Minister for Education Kate Jones, who called on the Federal Government to clarify how transport assistance for students with a disability would be delivered beyond 2019.
“Every day more than 5000 students with a disability are supported to travel to and from their home to state schools,” she said.
Ms Jones said under the national agreement entered into by the former government, school transport assistance for students with a disability will transition to the NDIS, but parents, carers and bus operators have been left wondering what the transition will mean.
“Communities are telling me they have serious concerns as they have received no information from the Federal Government about how these services will be provided under the NDIS post-2019.
“This is unacceptable for students and their families,” she said.
A petition has been launched online but Noosa MP Glen Elmes has labelled the Minister’s campaign as “scaremongering”.
“I am extremely disappointed that there are three members of Parliament, one of whom is a Minister, who chose not to pick up the phone and ask relevant questions before joining a campaign that does nothing more than incite fear among families who are already struggling,” he said.
“The notion to start a petition calling for the Federal Government to act is nothing more than scaremongering.
“I can assure families in the Noosa electorate that I will work with them and the relevant agencies between now and the end of 2019 to ensure they will have the necessary access to school transport.”
One such family left wondering what the future will hold is Arli Bray and her son Zak, who has an intellectual disability, epilepsy and microcephaly and is non-verbal, tube-fed, legally blind and reliant on others for all his daily needs.
Ms Bray, a blogger who writes about everyday life as a parent of a special needs child, sends Zak to school on a Government-funded school bus every morning to travel more than 30 minutes to Nambour Special School.
She said families using these services need to know what the plans are for the future.
“Families with special needs children are already so exhausted from everyday life, they have no energy to fight this,” she said.
“The uncertainty is appalling. It’s been hinted at that we will either need to drive our kids to school ourselves, which would mean two hours of driving each day for us and now way of getting (my daughter) to and from school as she attends a different school.
“Or we will need to arrange a taxi or Uber driver. This is appalling to say the least.”
Mr Elmes said he has investigated the “facts around the matter of school transport” and can assure parents that individual NDIS packages include funding to cover costs associated with school transport “giving families the choice of transport methods”.
To sign the petition, there is a direct link on Ms Bray’s blog page on Facebook. Search for Inspired by Zak.
