Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) is a federal government initiative agreed to by all Australian states and territories.

First trialled in 2011 and then again in 2012, a phased implementation began in 2013. This year, all Australian schools are to participate. The data is collected over a 10 week period, with the data collection tool opening on 18 May and data to be submitted by 7 August.

The QTU, along with the Australian Education Union and the Queensland Association of Special Education Leaders, supports the NCCD program in the hope that having nationally consistent data will lead to future needs-based funding. However, there are a number of concerns.

Which students will be reported on

Some students that teachers will be asked to report on will not have a verified disability. This is because of a disconnect between the federal legislation and the department’s six EAP categories of disability. The federal legislation has a broader definition of disability than that used by the department. However, schools do not need to report on every child. According to the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood National Schools Fact Sheet: “A student will only be included where there is documented evidence to support the inclusion of a student as meeting the definition of disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.”

“Diagnosing” students who are not verified

While teachers’ professional judgement is called upon, they are not expected to diagnose students.

If you don’t need to alter anything to involve the student in class activities, they probably don’t have to be included in the data collection. If you do, then that student can be included, even if they aren’t diagnosed.

Notifying the federal government and publication on MySchool

The SCSEEC states that: “Data security will be a priority. Data will be de-identified at the school level. Only de-identified school level data will be transmitted beyond the school to ensure that the privacy of the individual student is maintained”.

There are plans for school level data to be released on the My School website in 2016, “subject to the confirmation of data quality”. However, it is asserted that: “reported data will be aggregated at the school level by year level and will be reported in such a way that the privacy of all students is maintained”. At this stage, we do not have any details on how “data quality” will be confirmed. We have concerns regarding how this data could be used if published on My School, and also regarding the marginalisation and residualisation of public schools. The QTU has raised this concern with the Australian Education Union for further investigation.

Additional workload

Our members have repeatedly identified workload pressures as a significant professional issue. While we acknowledge the NCCD does add to workload, we consider the potential benefit outweighs the burden of the once-a-year collection. Additionally, we’ve been advised that while the first year of participation is time-consuming, subsequent years are significantly less so.

We do suggest that schools raise this issue through their LCCs and that staff involved in the data entry should be given appropriate time to do so.

DET support

We have raised the issue of support for schools with the department and have been told that there will be:

  • face-to-face professional learning sessions
  • iConnect- teleconference learning sessions for schools 
  • OneChannel recorded sessions 
  • email support at DisabilityPolicy.STUDENTSERV@dete.qld.gov.au 
  • “hotline” support (contact: 3513 5950)
  • a professional learning module on Elearn Blackboard 
  • TRS for schools new to data collection in 2015. 

A number of support documents are also provided by the federal Department of Education and Training. For further detail, see https://education.gov.au/what-nationally-consistent-collection-data-school-students-disability

It is our view that the Queensland department’s expectations are not unreasonable. However, the challenge will be in ensuring that this remains the case at the local level. For further advice or if you have concerns about the way the NCCD is being conducted at your school, contact your local Organiser or services@qtu.asn.au.

Kim Roy
Research Officer

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 120 No 4, 5 June 2015, p15