Keanu has experienced a challenging childhood.

The young boy lives his life with a number of disabilities. Keanu’s mother and sole carer, Hope, helps him deal with the complications that come from these disabilities – poor concentration and inattention, excessive restlessness, limited communication and social skills, episodes of aggression, anxiety, nervousness and a potential for self-harm when placed in stressful situations.

The family formerly lived in crisis accommodation, where Keanu’s mum was suffering a serious medical condition. This made it all the more difficult to get Keanu access to an education. Keanu’s mum was so worried that she told her story on national television. AED Legal Centre principal legal practitioner, Kairsty Wilson, happened to be watching the program and was so moved that she immediately contacted the producer to offer assistance to the pair.

After being excluded from school in 2011, Keanu started in Grade 1 in February 2012, with the full support of his health professionals. Over time, Keanu experienced difficulties in his ability to cope in mainstream schooling. It soon became clear that he was not receiving a meaningful education. Alternative schooling options were explored, with AED assisting Hope to find an autism-specific school equipped to handle the effects of Keanu’s disabilities. The school was a significant distance away from their crisis accommodation, so Hope applied for public housing in the area.

Through funding provided by the education department, a bus service is operated by the school for the benefit of its students living within the boundary of the Designated Transport Area.

However Keanu was excluded from using the school bus because they did not live within the set boundary. At the time, the round trip from home to school in the morning peak hour traffic would take approximately two hours.

The long hours of driving were taking their toll on Hope, who suffers a number of serious medical conditions herself. Requests made to the Department of Education for Keanu to meet the bus on its scheduled route, with no additional cost to the school, were refused. The department’s response was that in order for Keanu to participate in the school bus service, the family needed to move within the boundary.

In the meantime, Hope continued to drive over 500 kilometres each week to ensure that Keanu attended school regularly. Hope’s health then deteriorated significantly. The department’s insistence that Hope comply with an unreasonable requirement, at the expense of her own health and ability to care for Keanu, was considered to be discriminatory.

AED assisted Hope and Keanu to make an urgent application to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to enable Keanu to access the school bus service until the family could move to public housing in the local area. A further application was made by AED against the Department of Human Services in relation to the housing situation.

By the end of 2013 Keanu will be 8 years old, and will have successfully completed his first year of full-time schooling thanks to the support and action of Kairsty Wilson and the AED legal Centre.

Keanu and Hope have moved into permanent accommodation closer to Keanu’s school. Keanu now enjoys a much shorter forty minute trip to school via the bus, which continues to improve his social skills and independence. He has also made his first friend; an older student on the bus who also has high-functioning autism. They play Minecraft on their Ipads on the way to and from school each day.

Hope’s health has been up and down, but despite this, she successfully completed a Diploma in Community Development and Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. She is undertaking casual work and volunteering during the day – a luxury afforded to her now Keanu is in school. The opportunity to work over school holidays is still a work in progress at this time, but the future is looking much brighter for this unique family.