New documents reveal serious complaints of mistreatment by state education teaching staff against students with disability — from pulling a child by the hair while calling them an expletive, to grabbing a boy around the neck and shaking him.

Key points: The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability begins its first public hearing in Townsville today

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability begins its first public hearing in Townsville today An advocacy group has obtained documents from education departments around Australia about complaints against employees towards students with disability

An advocacy group has obtained documents from education departments around Australia about complaints against employees towards students with disability It also has information about the outcomes of some investigations

The documents — obtained by advocacy group Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) under Right to Information (RTI) laws — show dozens of employees in Queensland and New South Wales have been investigated for violence, abuse, or neglect towards students with disabilities in the past two years.

But as the first public hearing of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability begins in Townsville today — with a focus on education — CYDA's chief executive officer Mary Sayers said the national situation was unclear because details from some other states remain hidden.

She said CYDA had submitted RTI or Freedom of Information requests to every state and territory education department in Australia, seeking to find out the number of complaints levelled at employees towards students with disability and the outcomes of any investigations.

'If you hit me, I will hit you back'

According to material from Queensland's Department of Education, complaints were substantiated against more than 30 staff members between January 2017 and February 2019.

This included a teacher being reprimanded after it was reported they grabbed a student by the hair and pulled them, while yelling "go back to your desk you little sh**".

A teacher aide received a written caution for allegedly grabbing a student around the neck and shaking him, while another teacher was given a "code of conduct" reminder over accusations they smacked a child on the backside.

Two employees were also given disciplinary transfers in the wake of investigations, including a teacher who allegedly told a student, "if you hit me, I will hit you back".

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In another case, a teacher was issued with a written caution, amid reports they had "unnecessarily restrained" a boy by placing him in a headlock and forcing him to the ground.

A spokesman from Queensland's department of education said it treated all allegations of harm "extremely seriously".

"All students have the right to learn in an environment free from any threat or risk to their welfare" he said.

"Parents and students can be confident that if an allegation of harm is reported in a state school, it will be dealt with in a timely, serious and sensitive matter.

"Any allegation is thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken."

He said the department was continuing to "build a more inclusive education system," with the government investing $1.159 billion in the 2019-2020 financial year for extra staff to support students with disability.

Investigations in SA and Tasmania yet to be made public

In New South Wales, more than 200 complaints about conduct towards students with disability were investigated by its state education department in 2017 and 2018.

Of those, more than 100 complaints were "sustained".

In one, a casual teacher was accused of physically abusing and mistreating students with disability, leading to his approval being withdrawn.

In another, an assisted school travel program driver allegedly "engaged in sexual misconduct" towards two primary school students with intellectual disability and neglected to provide proper care.

That employee was given a remedial warning.

The Australian Capital Territory education department also provided a table listing six separate cases and the actions taken.

The document showed, in one matter, a person's employment was "terminated", while allegations in two other cases weren't sustained.

A spokesman from the ACT Education Directorate said it was unable to detail any specifics about the allegations, citing "privacy considerations".

But the details or outcomes of any potential investigations in other jurisdictions are yet to be made public.

In Queensland, the Teachers Union says there were sustained complaints against about 30 of nearly 50,000 state school staff. ( ABC News: Elizabeth Pickering )

Tasmania's Education Department rejected CYDA's request for information on the grounds the scope was a "substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources".

A spokesman told the ABC this decision was made after there had been "numerous attempts to work with the applicant to refine the application due to (its) voluminous size".

South Australia's department also confirmed it had declined to release several documents in case it prejudiced a matter already under investigation by police.

Ms Sayers said requests to Victoria and the Northern Territory's departments are still ongoing.

She said the process highlighted a lack of consistency and transparency of information between the states and territories.

"Some of the incidents are really shocking," she said.

"But we shouldn't need a Freedom of Information request to get this data — and for (other) jurisdictions we don't have any data at all."

Calls for clear, consistent complaints process

She also suggested incidents were underreported, pointing to CYDA's recent national education survey results, which showed that of 505 children with disability, 21 per cent reported being restrained either physically, chemically, or through commands.

"Families don't know who to complain to, they don't know whether to go to regional education office… (or) an independent organisation," she said.

"We need to have a consistent way that families can complain when there has been abuse of their children."

A spokeswoman from the NSW Education Department told the ABC it had a "clear framework" in place, obliging employers to report conduct to the NSW Ombudsman, which was then investigated by a central unit within education.

Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) president Kevin Bates said sustained complaints against 30-odd state school staff out of nearly 50,000 teachers across Queensland was a "low number".

"But from our perspective, one is too many," he said.

He said he supported allegations against teaching staff being thoroughly investigated, with sanctions applied where necessary.

"Where those (behaviours) are not appropriate … there are quite extensive and, in many ways, complex processes that employing authorities and teacher registration authorities go through to investigate those matters," he said.

"But it's also absolutely critical that where the investigation finds the actions taken were reasonable, there has to be an acceptance that the system is thoroughly investigating these processes and the interests of the child and the rights of the teacher are being protected in any of those processes."

He said according to the National Consistent Collection of Data, there were more than 120,000 students with disability identified in mainstream schools, plus another estimated 17,000 in special schools.

"We've been campaigning for more than a decade… to try and get government to deliver the appropriate levels of resources into our schools to ensure we can support the children," he said.

"Teachers cannot do the impossible — they do the very best they can with what they have available."

"There are times in our schools where unfortunately the needs of students cannot be met because simply the resources aren't provided by the government to do that."

He said the union would continue to work together with students, parents and its teacher members to provide training and support, while also urging the employer to "take its role seriously" in ensuring there are adequate resources to manage circumstances in the classroom.

"We look for this royal commission to seriously expose some of those short comings and hopefully bring about a change in resourcing policies," he said.

In their respective responses, spokespeople from the education departments in NSW, SA, ACT and Tasmania said they were committed to meeting the needs of students with disability, and outlined various support services offered to staff such as courses and access to behaviour coaches.

The royal commission is set to hold public hearings in Townsville until Thursday.