This allows them to not only ensure that there is the possibility of specialised education for special needs children and adolescents, but also to be able to correctly design the programs that are initiated to ensure that each child and adolescent is given the opportunity to be educated in a environment that will allow them to develop better than in the mainstream, where their special needs would not be attended to.
The Arundel State School on the Gold Coast opened in 1994. It offered a promising special education program that attracted the attention of parents with special needs children, ranging from basic learning disabilities to children with Down Syndrome and assorted other genetic and intellectual defects. Due to the lack of such a program in other schools, the needs of the children that this program was designed for had previously been neglected. Teachers at the other schools were ill-equipped in their training to deal with "difficult" children such as Renee, Jaime and Bobby. As such, these three (and others) were not given the same opportunity of a fair education that children considered "normal" by the system were offered. The specialised program at The Arundel State School allowed Renee, Jaime and Bobby to be provided with specialised care and tuition that considered their social and academic difficulties and catered to them in a way different to the mainstream classes, allowing them to develop the same skills as their peers at their own pace.
While the advantages, particularly in the case of the Arundel students, appear very beneficial to the system of development that allows the improved education of special needs children and adolescents, there are many disadvantages that come with labels. While Renee, Jaime and Bobby were provided with education better suited to their needs, the label of being "disabled" (Down Syndrome in the case of Renee and Bobby and slight mental retardation in the case of Jaime) brought upon many negative aspects to their lives.
