WARWICK residents have condemned controversial comments on education made by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

Senator Hanson made the statement in parliament last week, advocating for children with autism or other disabilities to be segregated from their classmates.

But members of the Southern Downs community have said inclusion can be beneficial for special needs schoolchildren.

Friends of BUSHKids president Ian Mace said he was disappointed by Senator Hanson's comments.

Mr Mace's son Edward has autism spectrum disorder, and his father said social interaction was a key developmental need.

"I am deeply saddened that anyone's views about segregation of children at schools with any disability including autism," Mr Mace said.

"In our family situation and our schooling, autistic children thrive on social interaction and we believe that this integration will give needy children essential life skills and teach everyone understanding about our human differences."

Teacher Rachel Leslie, whose own daughter Imogen has Down syndrome, said Senator Hanson's comments were "ignorant".

Mrs Leslie said it was important to recognise the unique needs of children in a learning environment, but segregation was not the answer to addressing those needs.

"I think there's a lack of understanding of what goes on, and to combat that ignorance we need to talk about it," she said.

"Teaching is a tough job but I don't think the answer is to move back to a segregation model, I think we need to resource (schools) better.

"Senator Hanson has made a broad link with students with autism having poor behaviour and I would hate for the public to think it's a brush you can tar all students with a disability with."

Mrs Leslie said she was disappointed by Member for Maranoa David Littleproud's response to Senator Hanson.

"David Littleproud on his Facebook page simply said he didn't want to give Pauline any more airtime," she said.

"The airtime should have been given to Gonski and school reform and not to painting the students as the problem." 

Mr Littleproud has said he absolutely does not support the comments made by his parliamentary colleague.  

"In the early hours of Friday morning we passed the Gonski 2.0 legislation that will provide needs funding to schools," he wrote on his Facebook page. 

"This will help put the resources in the classrooms that are required." 

On social media, teacher Julie Payne said a one-size-fits-all approach was inadequate.

"These students are all individuals presenting with individual requirements and needs, all at different levels," she said.

"They all must be assessed individually in combination with the whole students body being taken into account."

Teacher Judy Hefferan also said performance for students with autism spectrum disorder could vary greatly.

"As a mainstream teacher ... I honestly believe that each situation needs to be assessed on its own merits," she said.

"I have taught quite a lot of autistic spectrum students who have been, if not on par with other students, definitely ahead of them.

"What Hanson and her cronies cannot understand, is that there is never a one-size-fits-all policy to be applied."

Some parents were also supportive of maintaining mixed classrooms.

Warwick mum Belinda Tabikh said her autistic son had achieved high academic results and an excellent behaviour code.

"Why should he be removed to learn in a different environment because he does not have a neurotypical brain?," she said. "It's time to look beyond disability and see the ability; autism cannot be pigeonholed into one tidy little box."

Shannon Black said Senator Hanson was heading in a direction with her comments that was always going to divide parents.

"No two ASD children are alike so each child would need to b assessed as an individual not as a whole," she said.

"My child is in an umbrella class, which is in between mainstream and special education.

"It's a smaller class which suits her social needs as an ASD child."