Stock photo.
Photo: 123RF
The boy s mother told RNZ the process of finding schools for children who had been excluded or expelled took too long.
Her 13-year-old son was stood down from school seven weeks ago following a fight and the school s board decided to exclude him five weeks ago, just before the start of the April school holidays.
The woman said she knew from past experience it could take months to find a replacement school and the wait was frustrating. I have a son that desperately wants to go to school. He wants to be engaging with others and he can t because there s nowhere for him to go, she said.
An autistic boy who was expelled from school despite appealing to the Children s Commissioner has now been out of school for seven weeks.
The boy s mother told RNZ the process of finding schools for children who had been excluded or expelled took too long.
Her 13-year-old son was stood down from school seven weeks ago following a fight and the school s board decided to exclude him five weeks ago, just before the start of the April school holidays.
The woman said she knew from past experience it could take months to find a replacement school and the wait was frustrating.
Pharmac stressed that no current medicine used by child cancer patients would be taken away.
However, the health minister has so far refused to pointedly express support or opposition to such a move, instead saying he supported all health agencies to be doing their best for all New Zealanders. I want something that is lawful, compliant with human rights obligations and all the rest and is the best for New Zealand. I definitely want kids to get the best they can, because a young child with cancer, they ve got their whole life ahead of them. but actually we want better for others as well.
Children s Commissioner Andrew Becroft and Health Minister Andrew Little.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King, Samuel Rillstone
Yesterday, RNZ revealed that Pharmac is likely to end the blanket provision of child cancer drugs.
Pharmac said it had long viewed the special exemption for child cancer drugs as inconsistent but it was jolted into finally addressing the issue in response to a discrimination claim taken under the Human Rights Act.
In the claim, the regulator was questioned over why it was funding all child cancer drugs but would not fund Spinraza for about 35 children with spinal muscular atrophy, a deadly genetic condition.
It said no final decisions had been made but the most likely outcome of its review would be to bring child cancer drugs into the normal Pharmac process.