Learning from de-institutionalisation: how can the closure of residential institutions for people with disability inform the closing of special schools?

Despite widespread inclusive education progress, an end to segregated schooling is elusive. The divided recommendations regarding special schools made by Australia’s Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability are but one example of the continued resistance to closing segregated schools. This discursive article aims to keep educational desegregation on the agenda through positioning segregated schools as a modern-day example of institutionalisation and the fight to close them as a continuation of the deinstitutionalisation movement. We reflect critically upon the lessons learnt from de-institutionalisation and apply these to the case for closing special schools. We emphasise the need to reject institutionalised thinking, not just close facilities, and argue for an investment in social inclusion as a priority if students with disability are to live meaningful and fulfilling lives.