All kids deserve an education. Our beautiful 6 year old daughter Emily needs your help in getting this basic human right. So do all the children like her (with complex medical requirements), of which there is a vast and huge community of wonderfully resilient amazing little people. They deserve no less than their peers and siblings. Life has already made them fight, they weren’t given the abilities the rest of us take for granted.

Emily was finally - after numerous issues-  in the education system getting the required medical care and supervision she needs to receive an education at her school Sir Eric Woodward St Ives. Previous special needs schools had been unable to provide the support required. The difference was the amazing resource of a nurse fundamental to chronically ill children like Emily who has severe cerebral  palsy. 

The NSW Education Department is taking this resource away, trying to force teaching staff to be nurses, these are life and death situations that can be managed if coordinated and facilitated by a properly trained Registered Nurse. These are complex cases and it is negligent for an educator to be deemed qualified.

We’ve been given no warning, no recourse, just told that the only remaining nurse in the NSW special needs school system is going at the end of this year. Emily will not be able to go to school and this is just not good enough. Emily has the right to an education, these children have a right to a safe environment where they are properly cared for and managed to not only ensure their health but enable them to fully take in the education they’re receiving from the wonderful educators.

Please help us stop this from happening, ensure that all children do have the right to an education in this country.

Let the educators educate, let the nurses nurse and let the children learn.