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Policy call, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Thriving Kids could load more onto teachers already underwater, a panellist warned
In short
A New South Wales teacher described 24 young students, two hours of weekly support and a hamster wheel of content. A panellist said Thriving Kids, as they had heard it described, would add to that load.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
“I have 24 little bodies in my room,” a New South Wales teacher told the panel at Think Autism Melbourne in May 2026. The teacher worked with year one and year two students in a mainstream school, held a master’s degree in special education and had worked as a behaviour support practitioner. Several of the students were neurodivergent, some with multiple needs, and the support available to meet them was thin. “I get two hours a week,” the teacher said. On top of that came what the teacher called a hamster wheel of content to get through.
The intervention came near the end of a long exchange about what teachers should do differently for autistic students, in which the panel had argued over teacher knowledge, differentiating the curriculum and whether any child should have to mask in a classroom. The teacher said they worked hard every day so that their students did not have to mask with them. But much of the conversation, the teacher said, had been about the teacher needing to change, and the realities of that classroom meant the system itself was broken and needed complete change. The teacher also noted that some things the panel had questioned, such as group work, were built into the learning progressions the students had to meet, and said they wanted to work towards systemic change while learning, in the meantime, how to do better.
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Sources the story draws on
- Thriving Kids rollout delayed (opens in a new tab), newsGP (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners), by Michelle Wisbey
- Thriving Kids (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
- Press conference with Minister Butler, Canberra, 3 February 2026 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (ministerial transcript)
- IEU Speaks on the Thriving Kids Advisory Group Report and Recommendations (opens in a new tab), Independent Education Union of Australia, NSW/ACT Branch
- Thriving Kids launches today. Here's what will and won't change (opens in a new tab), UNSW Newsroom (republished from The Conversation), by Helen Dickinson (UNSW) and Catherine Smith (University of Melbourne)
More from Think Autism Melbourne 2026
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