THE ONGOING RESOURCE SCHEME (ORS)
The following above linked document has been compiled from the website www.minedu.govt.nz/ors , in September 2011.
We have extracted salient points for ease of reference. However it is crucial that you refer to the minedu website for any changes/up-to-date information as unfortunately NCHENZ does not have the resources to do this regularly.
In conjunction with précising the information from the website we have liaised with Marta Cullen, Early Intervention Teacher at CCS Disability Action, in Auckland. Marta has been extremely helpful in providing information. We are hopeful that through the sharing of this knowledge, that parents who have children with special needs, will feel less daunted when faced with what could potentially be an onerous journey in sourcing the right information.
Whilst this document has been designed to accommodate home educators nationally, Marta has offered her assistance in speaking to groups of parents in the Auckland area if the need arises. She can be contacted on (09) 625 3316. Workshops are also available for parents and these were run on request by personnel referred to as Verifiers and can be requested if need be, for a group of parents. Also the MoE can offer assistance by providing Practice Advisors who are available to give presentations.
Early intervention covers children from 18months – 5 years of age. Parents who are concerned about developmental delays in their children can refer directly to an Early Intervention Service. An application to ORS needs to be co-signed by an Early Intervention Teacher. A contact from the MoE has further advised us that on average an application will take 3 weeks to be considered before an outcome is advised to families.
In addition to working with Early Intervention Teachers it is very important to enlist the expertise of paediatricians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists etc. (if they have been seeing the child as part of the early intervention service) Essentially, paediatricians are best as a first point of reference as they (generally have seen the child in their clinic, over some years) and are generally well versed in assessing whether a child’s needs would indicate an application for ORS funding is likely to be needed. They may be able to give input to the application and they can make a referral to MoE Special Education early intervention or to another Early Intervention Service and get a “lead worker” to work with the family. It is important to note that it is not as easy to fill in an application form when the “lead worker” has not really worked with the child before. You may need to have several meetings to pass on information for the lead worker to be able to put in the best possible application.
We hope this information is useful to you. Please remember to also refer to www.minedu.govt.nz/ors for recent changes.
