The NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 No 48,
reprint #10 as in force at 4 Nov 1997 Includes all amendments up to
act 1997 No77.
On page 60, Division 3 entitled, "Discrimination in other areas"
(1) It is unlawful for an education authority to discriminate against a person on the ground of disability:
(a) by refusing or failing to accept his or her application for admission of a student, or
(b) in the terms on which it is prepared to admit him or her as a student
(2) It is unl unlawful for an education authority to discriminate against a person on the ground of disability:
(a) by denying him or her access, or limiting his or her access to any benefit provided by the educational authority, or
(b) by expelling him or her, or
(c) by subjecting him or her to any other detriment.
The disability discrimination act is a commonwealth law. You can view this legislation at the state library in the legal section.
This is an important piece of legislation because there are a significant number of gifted children who have a learning disability. The hard thing is to get a learned authority to state that your child has a DISABILITY as opposed to a LEARNING DIFFICULTY. It is pointless in terms of asserting this law if you cannot prove that you are talking about an actual disability.
Other learning disabilities would be, but not be limited to:
Unfortunately, many authorities and institutions seem hell bent on describing these permanent disabilities as a "difficulty" rather than being bold enough to classify the condition directly as a real permanent problem.
It is very important if you have a child with a real learning disability to get the right and proper classification for not only are you then in a position to assert the law, the Department of Social Security will provide an allowance which is not means tested of $74.90 per fortnight.
You can download a copy of the information sheet issued by the Department of Social Security from this link.
