400 More Students To Receive ORRS

Associate Minister of Education Heather Roy today announced that the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS), which provide support to students with high special education needs, will be extended to include another 400 students around the country who have missed out by frustratingly narrow margins in the past.

"In Budget 2009, the Government allocated an additional $51 million for ORRS to make the improvements that parents and others have called for. The use of this additional funding is being considered as part of the Special Education Review," Mrs Roy said.

"As the review has not been completed, however, I have approved an interim approach to expand ORRS to ensure more students can receive the additional teacher time, specialist programmes and therapies, and teacher aide support they need to achieve their education goals.

"The ORRS Extension is a one-year programme to run for 2010 only. Students placed in ORRS Extension will continue to receive ORRS support until they leave school. The Government has taken this approach to ensure more students will be able to access additional special education funding support, which would not have been possible otherwise.

"The ORRS Extension criteria will be modified to include students who are older than nine years, and have missed out on ORRS by a narrow margin. This criteria have been designed and assessed against information held by ORRS verifiers and Ministry of Education staff nationally to make sure students with the highest level of need are being equitably and consistently identified.

"This Government has identified the need for more support for students with special education needs, and will continue to make special education a priority," Mrs Roy said.