http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/special-schools-a-fast-track-to… BOYS are being segregated from the mainstream school system for behavioural and emotional disorders at about six times the rate of girls. A study by Macquarie University researchers has found a disturbing pattern suggesting specialist behaviour schools may act as a “school-to-prison pipeline”, in which students do not return to mainstream classes but enter juvenile justice centres. Based on an analysis of data from NSW, which has the most transparent education system, the study, to be published next month in the journal Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, examined the diagnoses of students enrolled in special classes and schools. It found boys and girls were almost equally represented in intensive English classes for new migrant children, and that the diagnosis of physical disabilities such as hearing and vision impairment, or moderate to severe intellectual disability, has remained relatively stable over the past decade. But the study found boys with physical disabilities were more likely to be in special schools than girls, while the numbers were more representative of the general student body in special classes in mainstream schools. The proportion of boys in special classes rises as diagnosis of their condition becomes more subjective, with boys accounting for 85 per cent of students in special schools with behavioural and emotional disorders. Lead researcher Linda Graham said enrolments for behavioural and emotional conditions start to rise in Year 5, when students are about 10 and specialist behaviour schools start accepting students. Dr Graham said this situation would be similar in other states. The NSW government established the first behaviour school in 2001 and now runs about 35 — including 14 for students with mental health problems — teaching about 500 students from Year 5 to Year 10. The enrolments for students with behaviour disorders rise sharply until they turn 13, which Dr Graham said was when the juvenile justice system started to pick up children. The enrolment pattern for students with behaviour disorders in juvenile justice facilities mirrors the trend in special schools, with enrolments for boys rising steeply from 13 on. Dr Graham said the similarities of the trend in behaviour disorders and juvenile justice involvement raised the question of whether behaviour schools “precipitate movement down a school-to-prison pipeline”. “Reports suggest that these kids are being sent into holding pens,” she said. “They're becoming repositories for kids … and once they go in, it appears a high proportion are not coming … out. “These are kids who are disengaging because they're not learning at the rate of their peers in the first school years,” she said. A spokesman for the NSW Education Department said students were usually enrolled in the behaviour schools for two to three terms, but this varied according to the type of behaviour problem involved. About half the students placed in behaviour schools returned to the mainstream system, he said. added by: MotherForTruth
