Autism policy hailed as positive for local residents

If elected, Labor will require all Victorian teaching degrees to have a compulsory disability component, investigate an early screening program for learning disorders and require all new schools to have facilities that cater for students with a disability.

They will also crackdown on the use of restraint and seclusion in Victorian schools. 

It comes after a 2012 report by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission found students with disabilities were being bullied, refused enrolment, discriminated against, physically restrained and kept in isolation while at school.

Kath Eaton's child is on the autism spectrum disorder and attends a local school*. 

She said the reforms could make a major difference to children, families, teaching staff and fellow pupils.

“Any new changes to make school easier for kids with special needs is great," she said. 

"I get so wound up about why some logical things to help kids like mine aren’t already in place.

"School (can be so hard) for my child and others I know, and getting extra help in a small town is really tricky."

Of the 49 undergraduate degrees in education on offer in Victoria, only one currently offers a mandatory unit in disability support.

Ms Eaton said she, and many others, had felt the fall-out from this first hand. 

"It's crazy disability training isn't already a requirement," she said.

"Some kids I know here with dyslexia and Asperger’s get no extra formal help even though they need it - it’s just wrong.

"But (these reforms) are the sort of stuff that can make some things much easier here in our schools and for quite a number of families I know”.

*Details have been left out to maintain privacy.