The service is funded by Queensland’s Department of Education and is available for FREE to all Queensland State, Independent, and Catholic Schools. The service is best designed and resourced to meet the needs of students with Intellectual Disability, including Down syndrome.
ID:8 is a free consulting service to build capacity of teaching staff with students with intellectual disabilities, formulating a goal to improve the student’s inclusion, and providing strategies and resources for any staff working with the student.
View the instructions to use the portal by clicking below:
This is a free consulting service and can be conducted face-to-face or virtually.
What’s included in ID:8?
ID:8 is comprised of four phases:
- Profiling: The school completes an intake form through the ID:8 portal to detail the learning needs of the student/s and identify potential barriers to learning.
- Collaborating: A FREE one-hour consultation with an ID:8 consultant, either online via Zoom or face-to-face at your school, to identify ongoing learning barriers and co-create an inclusive ID:8 learning goal.
- Reporting: You will receive a report on the outcomes of Phase 1 and 2 and recommendations to achieve the ID:8 goal. You will also receive relevant resources to support inclusion within the classroom.
- Reflecting: Schools can receive FREE ongoing consultations throughout the school year to review the ID:8 goal, and be supported to plan and implement the next steps for enhancing the student’s inclusion
Please note that this consultation service does not include a student observation, nor any parental or student involvement (other than necessary parental permission). If a student observation is desired/necessary as part of the consultation process, you may be interested in our QEST service.
To register for ID:8, you can complete the intake form here to begin Phase 1. Once the student information and documentation is uploaded, the Education team will arrange a date and time that suits for Phase 2.
Am I eligible to access ID:8?
The ID:8 program is a Special Disability Support Service (SDSS), funded by the Queensland Department of Education. The program is available for free to all State, Independent, and Catholic Schools in both metropolitan and regional areas across Queensland.
To be eligible to receive a SDSS service, a student must be enrolled in a Queensland school (state or non-state) and be identified in one of the following ways:
- A student who was recorded in the latest submission of the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) as receiving supplementary, substantial or extensive adjustments.
- A student where the school requires assistance to address a barrier to the student’s physical access to the school environment.
- A student who is new to the school (including Prep students), where the school has evidence of a diagnosed disability and has confirmed by the end of Term 1 that the adjustments provided are consistent with any of these descriptors in the NCCD guidelines (please refer to the ‘NCCD selecting the level of adjustment’ matrix).
- Supplementary: The student receives adjustments supplementary to the strategies and resources already available for all students within the school for particular activities at specific times throughout the week.
- Substantial: The student has substantial support needs and receives essential adjustments and requires considerable assistance to the usual educational program at most times, on most days.
- Extensive: The student has very high support needs and is provided with extensive targeted measures and sustained levels of intensive support at all times.
- Supplementary: The student receives adjustments supplementary to the strategies and resources already available for all students within the school for particular activities at specific times throughout the week.
It is recognised that a small number of students with disability require support to access and participate in education on the same basis as their peers without disability as soon as they commence school.
For Prep students or new students to a school, where the student has a diagnosed disability and documented ongoing complex needs, schools can apply for SDSS Program services to commence at the start of the school year if the student requires immediate support to access and participate in learning and/or for their safe attendance at school.
The consultation can involve multiple teaching staff, such as the classroom teacher, teacher aide, inclusion officer, head of inclusion services, or anyone who directly works with the student.
The school must have received parental permission for their child to receive the ID:8 support prior to the consult taking place, however DSQ does not require a specific form to be completed for this. It is up to each school how they ask and receive the parental permission.
The ID:8 (IDEATE) service is supported by the Queensland Government through the Department of Education Specialist Disability Support in Schools (SDSS) Program. You can find out more about SDSS by reading the SDSS Program Fact Sheet for Schools or visit the Queensland Government website.
How can I access the service?
ID:8 is a FREE consultation process per year per each eligible student. Our ID:8 consultations are available throughout the school terms and can be delivered virtually (through Zoom or Teams) or face-to-face.
To register, click on the ‘Apply Now’ button below or email the team at id8@downsyndromeqld.org.au.
If you’re having issues accessing portal, view our instructions here:
What our schools say:
“DSQ is a one-stop-shop for expert advice, Professional Development and a team of staff who listens to inform rather than listens to correct.”
State High School
“The consultants listened to the teachers to get to know the students and how they learn, and provided recommendations and resources/information that was relevant to each student.”
State School
“Gave some helpful ideas for resources and strategies and were generally very supportive of what we are already doing at the school with our students.”
State Secondary College
