It was written by an 11-year-old Ballarat girl who is determined to succeed despite a mild intellectual disability, poor memory retention and slow information processing.

But her desperate mother Jackie* fears her academic problems are affecting her whole life, as she is also being ostracised by many of her peers for being “dumb”. Unfortunately, her IQ of 71 is one point higher than the cut off point for a classroom aide.

“Multiple professionals say she needs an aide but the Education Department keeps throwing red tape back in our face,” she said.

“If someone is sitting with her, it makes a dramatic difference. Her school has done everything they can and put in place every program they can think of but she needs intensive one-on-one support. Everyone can see if she had an aide it would keep her on track.”

It was four years ago that Jackie first noticed her daughter was falling significantly behind her peers academically.

“She wasn’t able to retain information and needed multiple interventions like reading recovery,” she said.

In 2013, she was assessed by an Education Department psychologist who found she had a mild intellectual disability, a low working memory and slow processing ability but still did not qualify for an aide.

Subsequent retesting shows her IQ has improved slightly, meaning she is still ineligible for an aide, so Jackie has appealed the decision.

“If you can teach her over and over again, she retains it long term but it doesn’t happen otherwise. Kids in the class have commented that if they have a test she just looks out the window and won’t do it at all.”

Desperate for help, Jackie has even appealed the decision on behavioural grounds as it has affected her socially.

“My little girl is getting teased and is being excluded. The academic side has affected her in every other way. She is different and is noticing it too. At least an aide over the next two years can build up towards secondary school. Even if it’s just an hour a day, just anything would be good.”

Jackie has paid hundreds of dollars in tutoring fees but her daughter still struggles to retain the information. At home, they have visual lists for all her tasks and can only give her one direction at a time.

“The average IQ is between 75 and 115 and she has an IQ of 71 so what happens to all those kids who fall between 70 and 75?

“She doesn’t qualify for PINARC support or the Specialist School. They (the Education Department) offer support but only if you tick their boxes.”

Jackie said they were now looking at moving to a school which has an aide in each class.

“But I want to see the Education Department step up and stop her from falling through the cracks.”

(Jackie is not her real name.)

Two desperate mothers have contacted The Courier this week, independently of each other, over concerns their child is slipping through the educational cracks.

Both have primary school aged children who are now academically years behind their peers because they have quite complicated learning difficulties.

However, their IQs rate in the low 70s, which mean they don’t qualify for a classroom aide as the cut off point is 70.

A proposal by one of the mothers to have trainee teachers help struggling students as part of their course work caused many parents to come forward with similar stories once it was posted on The Courier’s Facebook page.

Kirsty Matthews wrote: “I have fought this battle since my daughter was seven and in grade two. She is now in year eight and things are very, very difficult for her at school.”

“My daughter’s reading is a lot more than two years behind and this is becoming very difficult as she does not qualify for an aide.”

Ms Matthews said her daughter was currently writing letters to politicians – which will be forwarded with no corrections to punctuation, spelling or grammar – to plead for extra help.

Katelyn Mulraney said: “The public system is a joke. My son never qualified for any funding, and he struggled for so long.”

Ms Mulraney said they eventually hired a tutor two nights a week and moved him to an independent school so he didn’t “slip through the cracks like he was in the public system”.

And Jo Fletcher said she paid $10,000 in 18 months on tutors to help her son, who has an IQ in the high 50s but didn’t qualify for an aide on a technicality.

“The Education Department shuts as many kids out as possible when it comes to disability funding,” Ms Fletcher said.

“It's almost criminal. How can these kids have an equitable education?

Buninyong MP Geoff Howard acknowledges issues with students with lower IQs who don’t qualify for an aide is a “challenging area”.

And, as a former secondary school teacher himself, Mr Howard said he was always concerned that he could spot the ones who needed extra support too.

 “I was always a bit frustrated knowing that, say in a class of 25, some were slipping through the cracks and needed more of my help,” Mr Howard said.

However, he said the state government’s aim of making Victoria the Education State would go some way to redressing the issues.

“We do have special needs students in our school system and, depending on a range of criteria, they can get special aide assistance for a number of hours in a school day.

“However, there are children who just miss out but we are limited budget wise.

“It’s always been a challenge and it’s frustrating for the kids as well.

“But the government is trying to address the issue. 

“We allocated $20 million over four years in the last budget for special needs and an extra $10 million was given last December to go in a range of directions.”

Mr Howard said these included students who needed language support or who had autism or dyslexia.

“The money has been divided in a range of ways to mostly support schools with extra training for teachers and better support for children with concerns.”

He said this would include more aides and specialist assistance such as speech pathologists.

“There are a range of different programs being funded. But there are challenges in education at all levels.

“However, we want to make schools better resourced and give classroom teachers special skills training.”

When the 2016/17 budget was released last May, Education Minister James Merlino said too many students with disabilities or learning difficulties faced being left out or left behind.

“We are making Victoria the Education State by upgrading classrooms, investing in our teachers and making sure every student has the opportunity to fulfil their potential,” Mr Merlino said.

“All Victorian students should have access to a quality education, no matter their background or circumstance.”

The budget also provided $87.3 million to support an extra 1750 students who are expected to be eligible for the Program for Students with Disability in 2017 and to increase the number of speech pathologists, language programs and language screener tools for students with autism and dyslexia.

It also helps students with disabilities to travel between home and school.