Educational inequities and disability

Jasmine

Tahu and our other son went to kōhanga. And we left there; we ended up leaving there because it was just so hard to get supports like speech-language therapy. Most of the help comes from a non-Māori perspective and we just wanted to get whatever help we could.

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So there isn’t the options, I think. Yeah, there just is no options to be able to do it and be Māori.

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Ray

I remember we actually discussed, “Okay, we want him to communicate”, because he was non-verbal and we were like, “Are we going to have to get him to speak English because it's easier to support?”

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Jasmine

So we started looking pretty early for schools when he was about four. It was all really new to us, so we wanted to figure it out and get it right. So we started looking mainly at special schools because that’s what we thought at the time that was needed. But then we actually live on the back of a mainstream school and we weren't really considering that because it didn't have a fence, he would run away. We didn't think that they'd be able to look after Tahu or cater to his needs.

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And they were like, “Oh, well maybe we could look at this, or maybe we could look at that.” So straight away, we had a totally different feel from that school. And it was just one person really. Just really...what was it? She just cared.

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Ray

It felt welcoming. That struck us quite large, because, I mean any parent, I suppose, don’t want to go to a place where they don't feel welcome.

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Jasmine
So, he aged out of the school that we had a really good experience, you know, because he's moving on to intermediate. And the biggest letdown for us is he’s grown up with a whole bunch of kids and then he couldn't follow-on with them. You know, they're all going to intermediate, they're all just getting accepted. Whereas when we go, they pretty much said, “No, you can't come here”. Or, “Actually, you should go to a different school.”

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Ray‍
We went to the mainstream intermediates first and we actually got emails saying, “Oh no, we can't accommodate Tahu at ours because of his running and safety”, and blah blah blah.

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Jasmine

When we got told that he couldn't go to the local intermediates, we were like, “We're going to advocate and we're gonna say that they must have him”. And then we sat down and thought about it and thought who wants to go to a school where you're not welcome, you know? And your mum and dad kind of had to force you to go there.

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Ray‍
We went to one special school and they had no space. And then the last special school we had to wait right to the end of the year before we even started transitioning; and whether he was accepted into that school or not.

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Jasmine

So he's just been chucked into a completely different space now where he knows no-one and they don't know him. The other kids, you know, they knew their intermediate. They could go to orientation and they knew they had a school. Whereas for months, I think, we didn't have one.

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Ray‍

Right to the end...yeah.

He’s at a special school but they donʻt accommodate what his strengths or anything because they’ve got a framework and then he has to fit in that framework. He tries to identify his routines and that’s just what it is now. As his parents we just carry on because we just, you know, push on. But he’s cool because he, Tahu, he just pushes on too.