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Education Minister Bill Shorten visits the Jackson School in St Albans with his daughter Clementine. Photo: Ken Irwin http://www.araratadvertiser.com.au/story/1725307/dyslexia-counted-as-disability-under-better-schools-plan/?cs=24 Students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties will be identified as having a disability under the federal funding reforms, paving the way for more support for children who struggle with reading and spelling. In Victoria, students with dyslexia rarely meet disability funding criteria or qualify for extra assistance. However Education Minister Bill Shorten said the level of support for students with learning difficulties or a disability would no longer be based on the state they live in, the school they attend or how many other students were competing for the same bucket of money. ‘‘An Australian Council for Educational Research study in October 2011 estimates that one in 10 students in Australia is dyslexic,’’ Mr Shorten told Fairfax Media. ‘‘As a result of the Better Schools reforms, students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties will now be included in the nationally consistent collection of data on school students with a disability.’’ Under the needs-based funding reforms, every primary student will be allocated a base payment of $9271 and every high school student $12,193, with extra loadings for disability, indigenous students, students with poor English and disadvantaged students. The nationally consistent collection of data on school students with a disability, which will start in October, will be used to develop the loadings for students with disabilities. However a data collection trial – conducted at 209 schools last year – revealed schools were confused about which students to count as having a disability. The trial has raised fears about whether the disability loading will be developed in time to implement in 2015, as promised by the government. Twenty-seven schools in the trial counted more than 25 per cent of their students as having a disability, while 17 schools identified as few as 2 per cent. ‘‘The most significant finding of the trial was the extent to which schools misunderstood which students should be identified under the model,’’ according to a report on the trial by PricewaterhouseCoopers. ‘‘Twenty-three per cent of schools ... said they were not very confident that the model identified all students with disability in their school.’’ The model used to collect data states that all students who meet the definition of disability under the Disability Discrimination Act should be counted. However some schools only included students who already received disability funding or only those who had been clinically diagnosed with a disability. Others were confused about whether to include students with medical conditions, such as asthma or allergies, or were reluctant to include students with mental health conditions, such as eating disorders, depression or anxiety, because they felt uncomfortable labelling students. PricewaterhouseCoopers said after incorporating key lessons from the trial, it considered the model was suitable as the basis for the nationally consistent collection of data. However Children with Disability Australia executive officer Stephanie Gotlib said she was worried there was still so much work to be done that development of the disability loadings would be delayed. See your ad here ‘‘From our perspective the education system is really failing kids with disability and I’m concerned it is not getting the traction it needs,’’ she said. ‘‘There must be an across the board guarantee that implementation of the disability loading will happen in 2015 and a commitment to the creation of a national action plan for students with a disability.’’ jtopsfield@theage.com.au