tried” and a residential specialist school is believed to be the best way of meeting the child’s needs.40 29. This year, in March 2022, the government proposed more changes to the direct access pathway for residential specialist schools, including further adjustments to the entry criteria and enrolment processes. This proposal has been developed despite the Disability Rights Commissioner raising serious concerns with the Ministry of Education, in meetings and correspondence, and emphasising the ongoing need to focus on building a truly inclusive education system. Disabled people and their representative organisations have raised similar concerns. 30. Under the government’s proposal, three of the four current entry requirements would be removed. Students would no longer need to have “highly complex and challenging” needs, require community intervention or intensive services, and their whānau would not have to have considered or tried local learning support services. These factors would instead become “explicit considerations” rather than preconditions for entry. The result of this proposal would mean that disabled children and young people currently living with their whānau and receiving education at their local school would have further pathways for entry to residential specialist schools. 31. On 4 May 2022, the Commissioner wrote to the Minister for Education, the Associate Minister for Education, and the Minister for Disability Issues regarding her concerns at the proposal to expand eligibility for enrolment at residential specialist schools and its potential to negatively impact Aotearoa New Zealand’s obligations under the CRPD. Despite this correspondence, the response from the government was not reassuring. In particular, the Commissioner is concerned that: a. The proposed changes remove baseline criteria such as the requirement for local solutions to be considered first before offering residential schooling. In her view, this is likely to lead to enrolments at residential specialist schools that do not adequately consider local and less disruptive services. b. The residential specialist schools are potentially masking gaps in respite care. The Commission is concerned that in the absence of appropriate comprehensive support for families, residential accommodation in specialist schools will be seen as the only viable option for them. We consider a CRPD-consistent approach requires that disabled children and their whānau be afforded appropriate supports so that children can live and learn in their local communities. c. Continuing to invest in residential options entrenches the long-standing lack of innovation and creativity in supporting and resourcing local inclusive solutions. As a result, whānau experience little real choice and lack the genuine option of supporting their disabled children and young people in their communities and local schools. d. Residential settings give rise to risk of abuse, including the disproportionate use of physical restraint, alongside the long-term impacts of social, familial, and cultural 40 Ministry of Education ‘Residential specialist school enrolment – RSS only pathway’ (May 2022). 12