Disability Inclusion Profile

Supporting information required for the Disability Inclusion Profile

Principles of the supporting information guidance

The Disability Inclusion Profile meeting will discuss the student’s:

• strengths and educational aspirations
• functional needs across 6 domains and 31 educational activities
• adjustments required to enable participation in their education.

The Functional Needs Domain Table (PDF) summarises these 31 activities.

The facilitator will support meeting participants to discuss and agree to the ‘level of adjustment’ being provided or required for the student to participate in each of the profile’s 31 educational related activities. The Levels of Adjustment (PDF) resource provides a description of each level.

Supporting information is used within the profile process to confirm that the level of adjustments identified accurately match the student’s functional needs, particularly for adjustments at the substantial or extensive level. In some cases, particularly when seeking to support the differentiated and supplementary levels of adjustment, no additional documentation will be required as a verbal description of the student’s characteristics and adjustments will be sufficient.

It is recommended that schools upload a maximum of 15 individual documents as supporting information before the meeting. When collating supporting information, schools should think critically about the quality and relevance of documentation they provide and ensure that it demonstrates the planning and implementation of adjustments. Schools should be able to talk to this at the profile meeting and connect it to the relevant activities within the profile.

School are required to upload supporting information and complete the profile information form before a meeting. Once this step has been finalised, the profile request is considered complete for the purposes of accessing backdated funding.

It is strongly encouraged that schools consult with their health and wellbeing or student support services key contact and/or regional disability coordinator prior to any initial profile request to ensure that supporting information relates to the specific levels of adjustment in the domains or activities identified.

Refer to the Supporting information guidance for schools (DOCX) to identify and prepare key information for the profile.

Should the student be eligible for tier 3 funding, the student’s levels of adjustment across all 31 educational activities contribute to the tier 3 funding allocation. As such, schools should provide supporting information related to all relevant activities and domains within the profile. Refer to: Tier 3 student-level funding.

A flexible approach is taken to the supporting information requirements for eligibility for tier 3 – student level funding. This approach minimises the burden for schools and families in collating information. It seeks to understand the adjustments that are required for the student to participate in their education on the same basis as their peers.

Sources of supporting information

The following types of supporting information can be provided to support the profile process:

• information about both the school-wide and student-specific adjustments currently being provided to support the student
• information on the implementation of these adjustments over time, including the intensity, frequency and personalisation of adjustments, and the student’s responsiveness to them.

School-wide adjustments include any adjustments, policies, facilities, resources and supports in place that are not specific to any one student.

Student-specific adjustments are adjustments in place to meet the specific needs of a student to participate at school.

For students in out-of-home-care (OOHC), an Educational Needs Analysis may also be provided as a source of supporting information.

Schools must evaluate the relevance of student notes/records from educational management programs (such as COMPASS, SIMON, Seesaw or Google Classroom) for ‘need to know’ information regarding the adjustments in place for the student before providing this documentation. Such information is often not relevant to the profile process and may not meet the privacy requirements for the collection and use of student information. For more information, see: Privacy and Information Sharing

Collating and submitting supporting information

Following approval of a profile request screening requirements, schools are encouraged to work with parent/carer(s) to collate relevant supporting information, to be provided in addition to that provided at the request stage. If they have not done so already (refer to: Requesting a Disability Inclusion Profile meeting), schools are also encouraged to discuss the supporting information with their health and wellbeing or student support services key contact before the meeting.

Schools are required to upload supporting information via the DIFS Portal. Refer to: the DIFS Portal User Guide (PDF). The facilitator service will be unable to accept hard copies of supporting information, including at the profile meeting. It is recommended that schools upload a maximum of 15 documents as supporting information before the meeting.

Schools can table additional documents during the profile meeting and these will be considered by the facilitator. If these documents are required to substantiate a level of adjustment, facilitators will request that these documents are uploaded after the profile meeting.

School documentation as supporting information

Profile information form

Schools must complete a profile information form as part of the profile request via the DIFS Portal. This form collects information about the student and details of SSG members that will attend the profile meeting. Refer to: the DIFS Portal User Guide (PDF).

Once the profile information form and supporting information is provided, the profile request is considered complete for the purposes of accessing backdated funding.

Optional school-wide adjustments form

Schools can also complete an optional, but strongly recommended, school-wide adjustments form. The facilitator service will send this form to schools when requesting supporting information. This form gives schools the opportunity to outline all the adjustments, policies, resources, facilities and supports they have in place for all students with disability.

The facilitator service will keep a record of this form to use for future profile meetings held at your school. Schools only need to provide this form once, though schools may wish to revisit this form periodically.

Disability Inclusion and supporting information for the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Disability Inclusion funding is not related to a student’s eligibility for supports under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Many students who have a profile meeting will also participate in the NDIS. NDIS documentation provided by the parent/carer(s) may be used as supporting information for profile meetings, however, its use or consideration is not mandatory.

Supporting information for the profile may include NDIS documents, including:

• a copy of a NDIS plan
• any NDIS therapy reports, assessment reports or progress reports.

The outcome of the profile meeting is separate from the NDIS.

NDIS participants are not compelled to disclose their participation in the NDIS. If a student is an NDIS participant, they may choose to self-report this to the school.

Parent/carer(s), pending agreement from the school, can invite people that are involved with their child through the NDIS to the profile meeting, including:

• NDIS funded therapist
• local area coordinator
• early childhood professional, such as an early childhood teacher and allied health.

Digital supporting information

Digital supporting information (such as videography and photography) can be provided as part of the profile process. Digital supporting information may be helpful to have a visual representation of adjustments, where it cannot be demonstrated through formal documents. Digital supporting information should not replace other kinds of school-based documentation and should not be used to demonstrate a student’s functioning, presentation, challenging behaviour or to highlight their disability.

Any provision of digital supporting information must be consistent with consent provided by parents for use of photos, videos and images of the student and needs to align with the department’s Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy requirements and your school’s local policy.

Third-party software, programs or applications used for collating student information

No third-party software, programs or applications have been accredited by the department for use as part of the Disability Inclusion Profile process. There are a range of risks related to the use of such software, programs of applications, including related to child safety, records management and privacy.

Should schools wish to use any software, programs of applications they are free to do so. However, any use must be compliant with all relevant legislative requirements, including those that relate to child safety, records management and privacy.

Use of third-party software, programs of applications must be approved by the school’s principal and a Privacy Impact Assessment must be completed. Refer to Privacy and Information Sharing: Privacy impact assessments.

Ideally, schools should have in place a contract with the software, programs or applications to ensure appropriate use of private, personal and health information.

In deciding to use any software, programs or applications schools should weigh a range of factors including the potential benefits and financial costs to the school and whether alternative solutions exist.

Refer to the Privacy and Information Sharing Policy.

Supporting information from specialists and school-based experts, including Health, Wellbeing, and Inclusion Workforces

The profile can be supported by professionals who provide evidence-based advice and guidance that enables schools to effectively implement appropriate adjustments to support students in the school environment. These professionals include specialists and school-based experts.

In some circumstances, such as where there is a safety risk to the student, a specialist with the appropriate qualifications will be required to contribute to supporting information for a profile. Facilitators will advise where this is the case. As an example, for students with swallowing difficulties that result in a risk of aspiration or choking, their supporting information must be informed by a medical practitioner and/or speech pathologist.

The department’s HWIW are considered specialists and should have their involvement demonstrated in supporting information for students undertaking the profile.

HWIW comprise:

• student support services
• primary and secondary school nurses
• visiting teachers
• Koorie engagement support officers
• other regional/divisional or area-based staff whose key role is to provide support to schools. Schools are encouraged to identify appropriate additional workforces with their regional disability coordinator, health and wellbeing or student support services key contact.

Mental health practitioners are also considered specialists where their area of expertise aligns with specific activities.

More information on the role of specialists and school-based experts, including HWIW, in providing supporting information is detailed in the Supporting information guidance for schools (DOCX).

Specialists/school-based experts and supporting information

The involvement of specialists and school-based experts in supporting students can be demonstrated in the supporting information held and submitted by the school. At times, specialists and school-based experts may provide additional supporting information that is separate to school documents. This may include a formal report or a record of specialist involvement. These should be provided to the school to collate with other supporting information. Schools are responsible for co-ordinating the submission of all supporting information to the facilitator service.

In the case of private specialists (including those working through the NDIS), schools will need to work with the parent/carer(s) to provide consent/release of this information to share with the school. Refer to: Supporting information guidance for schools (DOCX).