Parents pull children from Melbourne Jewish schools over special needs failure

Parents report moving their children to public schools because Jewish schools were unwilling or unable to accommodate learning disabilities or individual needs.

A few weeks ago, I set out to write a piece that looked at the cost of Jewish school fees and the fact that Melbourne now has an independent fee assessment board which offers subsidised places for children whose families are struggling to afford the fees. I was curious to know whether this board was being well received by parents.  

When I asked on social media for public school parents to tell me their thoughts on Jewish schooling, I expected most of the responses would talk about affordability. A large number of people responded to my post. But what I found was much more disturbing.

They had pulled their children out of Jewish schools and enrolled them in public schools due to the lack of flexibility or accommodation that Jewish schools in Melbourne had shown for students with special needs or their kids who didn’t fit into a box. The parents were not limited to one particular Jewish school, or age group, and had pulled their children out in equal numbers of both primary and high school.

Not surprisingly, they did not want to identify themselves because of the sensitivity of the subject. But their responses were troubling. As one mother who got in touch via my J-Seek post told me, “My child is non-binary, and the [Jewish school] wasn’t very safe. There was major bullying that didn’t get addressed properly. There was a lot of physical and emotional abuse.”

Another mother told me: “My child is dyslexic. The dual curriculum was extremely hard. So hard. The public school was a more supportive environment. My kid didn’t fit into the box. Jewish schools weren’t for them.”

It’s no secret that Jewish schools place lots of emphasis on Year 12 academic results, with advertisements taken out each year highlighting their exceptional students and academic accomplishments.