- Government to fund first new specialist schools in 50 years.
- Education minister says the debate about inclusion is over and this offers parents choice.
- Disability advocate says there should be more funding to mainstream schools.
The government has announced funding for two news specialist schools, catering for children with high needs and disabilities.
These will be the first new specialist schools built in 50 years.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said this gave parents choice, but an education academic said more funding should instead be directed into mainstream education.
Stanford and Finance Minister Nicola Willis made the announcement at Queen Elizabeth College in Palmerston North on Thursday.
The college's campus will host one of the school, which will open in Term 2, 2027.
The other will open next to Ngākōroa School in Drury, South Auckland, in Term 1, 2028.
Erica Stanford, flanked by government colleagues Mike Butterick and Nicola Willis, announces the new specialist schools. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
'Line in the sand'
Stanford said New Zealand was overdue for more specialist schools.
"The debate has raged for so long about specialist schools that we have not built one in 50 years, and the demand, as we know from parents, is enormous.
"The care and dedication of those principals and staff is amazing and we want children to have the opportunity and the chance to experience a specialist day school."
Stanford said they were an important part of the schooling network.
"We draw a line in the sand and we say the debate about inclusion is over.
"Inclusion is choice. Parents who have children with high or complex needs should have the choice to either go to a specialist school, a satellite classroom or, indeed, their local mainstream school."
She said there was more demand for specialist schools, and the government was meeting that.
This government had funded 50 new specialist classrooms and redevelopment at four specialist schools.
The two new schools mean there will be 29 specialist schools in New Zealand, and they are the first to open since Hamilton North School in 1977.
Willis noted the extra $746.9 million in last year's Budget for children who needed additional support.
She said the two new schools would give choice for parents concerned their children weren't in the right environment, and that choice could be life changing.
The new schools include accessible indoor and outdoor learning spaces, and family and therapy areas. Their combined cost is about $40 million.
The closest specialist school to Palmerston North is now in Whanganui.
Special schools but no special society
Auckland University education senior lecturer and committee member for the Inclusive Education Action Group Dr Jude MacArthur was disappointed by the today's announcement.
She said about 12,000 children received funding for high needs, but only a third of them were in specialist schools.
That meant the rest were in mainstream schools, which needed to be well supported and resourced.
"We know from decades of research and many reports in New Zealand that we have historically underfunded inclusive education in this country, and that there really is a desperate need to ensure that what resources we do have available are not tied up in segregated settings for a small number of children, but rather are readily available to support all children and their families and teachers in their local school," MacArthur said.
Research showed segregation wasn't good for children.
She quoted the late advocate Sir Robert Martin, who attended a specialist school, and asked why they existed when there was no special society as a whole.
"Inclusive education is really about supporting disabled children to stay in their local communities, to have friends in those local schools and to grow up and develop in a society that, as a result of them being there, also ends up being an inclusive society," MacArthur said.
Educators had asked for years for funding for teacher aides, so there was one for every classroom, but that had not happened.
Announcement prompts tears
Specialist Education Principals' Association of New Zealand president Maureen Poulter, who is principal of Ferndale Te Ahu school in Christchurch, said the current government had prioritised learning support, and not just for specialist schools.
Maureen Poulter says she had tears in her eyes during today's announcement that two extra specialist schools are to be built. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Specialist schools had long suffered from a lack of investment, as highlighted in a 2024 Education Review Office Report that found dilapidated facilities.
Poulter's school, of 137 students, needed a lot of work, but it was rebuilt after the Christchurch earthquakes.
"Specialist schools - this our bread and butter, working with those students.
"We are really focused on how we can meet those complex learners' needs and we bring a lot of expertise to that," she said.
"We spend a lot of time training our teachers so they have a high level of expertise working with students with complex needs."
Poulter said she had tears in her eyes during today's announcement.
"It's about what's good for these young people and their whānau, and if you'd walked beside them in their lives you'd understand the absolute significance of them [the schools].
"It's so life changing for them. It's an amazing things that this is happening."
Specialist schools also shared their expertise with mainstream schools too, she said.
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