disconnection people experience when separated from their whānau, peers, communities, and cultures.41 32. Disabled people and their representative organisations have raised similar concerns about the government proposals. Education for All and its associated forum members – which include representative organisations of disabled people – have spoken collectively against the government proposal to expand enrolments in residential specialist schools.42 Their view is that financial resources used to support residential specialist schools would be better used for effective educational inclusion. In an open letter dated 28 April 2022, they said: ‘We believe that this is a serious equity issue. Financial resources that could be directed at effective educational inclusion are being used to support an outdated model of how to care for young disabled New Zealanders. Currently children and young people attending Residential Specialist Schools receive between ten and twenty times the highest average level of resourcing as a child or young person attending their local school.’ 33. In addition to the right to inclusive education, disabled people have the right to be consulted and actively involved with the development and implementation of policies that affect them and others.43 Disabled people and their whānau must be recognised as partners and not merely recipients of education.44 However, relevant groups including disabled adults, children and their whānau have not been publicly or comprehensively engaged with. Instead, the Ministry of Education has undertaken ‘targeted engagement’ over a short time period. Recommendations: The Commission recommends that the New Zealand Government: a) Does not progress with the proposal to remove three of the four current entry requirements for direct access pathways to enrolment in residential specialist schools. 41 42 43 44 Ministry of Education data, released through Official Information Act 1982 requests, show that incidents of restraint occurred 35 times between August 2021 and February 2022 in one residential specialist school with a reported role of 8 students. This compares to 523 incidents of restraint across all mainstream schools over the same period, with over 800,000 students enrolled. Physical restraint is 5,732 times more likely to occur in a residential specialist school than in a regular school. The ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has also highlighted the risks to children of residential care, for example the abuse that occurred of learning disabled boys at Marylands https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/our-inquiries/abuse-in-the-care-of-the-catholic-church/marylandsschool/ and the treatment of disabled children at the Kimberley Centre https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/our-progress/library/v/68/statement-of-sir-robert-martin-mnzm and https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/our-progress/library/v/148/statement-of-gay-rowe-for-paul-bealefor-state-redress-hearing. Education for All “An open letter”, above n 35. CRPD, Article 4(3). General Comment No.4, above n 24, [7]. 13