Teachers union takes special school funding fight to industrial court

Queensland teachers have escalated a year-long fight with the education department over special school funding reductions, filing a formal dispute in the state’s industrial commission.

The Queensland Teachers’ Union lodged paperwork last week to have the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission mediate the matter the groups have been unable to resolve.

It comes as the Crisafulli government embarks on what it has called the largest special school investment in the state’s history, with six new schools to be built or opened from 2027.

The dispute stems from a new model for giving mainstream and special state schools extra teachers and teacher aides to support more than 106,000 students with disability, which was rolled out this year.

Dubbed “reasonable adjustment resourcing” when introduced by the former Labor government in 2022, the model shifted from being based on six types of disability to a needs-based approach.

But according to the union’s dispute notice, indicative teacher, teacher aide and leadership role allocations released in November 2024 showed “significant reductions”.

This was particularly seen across the state’s 46 public special schools, from which union members – including principals – were said to have contacted the union with concerns.

Staff have been warning about the 2025 resourcing allocations would have an adverse impact on schools’ ability to maintain safe systems of work.

The union said it first formally wrote to the department about a year ago to share the concerns the reductions posed a risk to staff safety through increased workload and occupational violence.

There were warnings about the health and safety of students, particularly those needing medical support or complex care in schools with reduced staff-to-student ratios.

The risks were also raised in a letter to Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek in April, and in a further meeting with departmental officers in late October, the union said.

While the department announced minor increases to allocations for some public special schools in early November, principals told the union the increases would still leave their special schools understaffed.

The following week, the union notified the department it would take the dispute to the industrial commission.

“The principle issues related to this dispute continue to be that the changes to staffing allocation to special schools, effective from January 2025, has resulted in significant risks to worker health and safety,” the unions dispute form said.

The union asks include sufficient staffing from the start of the 2026 school year, an urgent review of the resourcing model, workplace risk assessments and confirmation all special school students automatically meet the highest resourcing category.

In her response to the union late last month, director-general Sharon Schimming noted the numbers of teachers, teacher aides and specialist staff allocated and the recently announced lift.

Schimming said the department was committed to risk assessments as needed and had established health and safety committees, with almost 140 new health and safety roles to roll out from July 2026.

The union and department both said they could not comment about matters before the industrial commission.

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