Linda Graham,an expert in inclusive education at the Queensland University of Technology,said NSW should scrap the"outdated"model of allocating targeted funding by diagnostic label."We have known for 20 years that this approach creates perverse incentives",she said.
The federal Department of Education has already moved to a model based on"functional assessment"similar to the National Disability Insurance Scheme - that is,a system based on how well an individual functions rather than their disability label.
However,most states and territories are yet to come on board. The NSW Department of Education confirmed it was redistributing its $258.1 million share of annual federal funding for students with disabilities according to its own formula,rather than back to the schools that generated the funding.
Adrian Piccoli,the director of the Gonski Institute for Education at the University of NSW,said"states and school systems have better and more granular data than the Commonwealth so yes they should pool funds and distribute it the way they think best".
"But there should be complete transparency about how they do this and the methodology they use,"he said."At the moment there is virtually none with the non-government sector."
In 2012,as NSW education minister,Professor Piccoli introduced a flexible,functional model for funding for students with disabilities,through what is now the Low Level Disability Funding,worth $288 million a year,mostly to NSW state primary schools.