Subject: FW: Inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools
Submission
From: Chelsea & Timothy Rutter
Sent: Tuesday, 11 July 2023 8:30 PM
To: Committee, Education & Health Standing laehsc@parliament.wa.gov.au
Subject: Inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools - Submission
This is my experience as a parent of primary school aged children.
We have a number of students enrolled in the school who are diagnosed with autism and an unfortunately large amount who are imputed, still awaiting a formal diagnosis. Some of these kids have extreme behaviours requiring a significant amount of supervision and support which is made difficult given the minimum support afforded to them until a formal diagnosis is given.
The wait to access child development services in the public system such as Paediatricians and Speech Pathologists, to just start the drawn out process of getting a formal diagnosis is unreasonable. Currently it’s averaging over a 15 month wait to see a Paediatrician. Leaving the only other alternative for parents to seek private practitioners of which the cost is unmanageable for many households to even consider. That’s if you can even find a private practice that will allow you to put your name down on a wait list. Lots have closed their books leaving parents feeling helpless and overwhelmed. This is a HUGE contributing factor as to why our schools are struggling. The expectation for schools to pick up the slack, manage often extreme behaviours, while still teaching whole classes effectively is unrealistic and unfair.
Education and Health need to manage this together as it’s multifaceted. Child development services such as Paediatricians, Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapist etc should operate directly out of our schools or at least alongside schools supporting our struggling kids and teachers.
| am also privy to another perspective being a parent member on the school board. I’m incredibly proud of the
inclusive attitude and educational support our school offers these students. It’s when handling these complex behavioural needs the school community is struggling and support is lacking.
At times staff are hurt, students are frightened and you can imagine the disruption it causes in classrooms. On occasion the school goes into code yellow lock down to ensure student safety, whilst teachers try their best to de escalate the often out of control situation. Too regularly my kids comes home and tells me of incidents at the school. For example last term a student hit another student continuously until they themselves were physically restrained. This is only one example.
Unfortunately is currently on leave as a result of these incidents and it leaves our already weary Principal and her team stretching themselves even more thinly. In the past 5 years we’ve had 5 teachers on workers
compensation as a direct result of managing these students and their behaviours. | can see our Principal and
Deputies are struggling and close to burn out. We as a board, as parents and as community members need them to me effectively supported.
Educating our teachers is key. They should be fully trained in extreme behaviour management and all other relevant training to ensure they’re confident and able to effectively manage their classroom and students with complex needs. This should be fully funded by the Education department as a compulsory safety measure, not by our schools.
Right now our school has funding for one and a quarter days of Child Psychology support within the school a week. That’s it. That doesn’t really allow for extensive intervention and follow up appointments.
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I understand this is a very complex issue. I feel for the parents of these kids immensely. Every child deserves to feel included and safe when at school. We need to get extra supports in our school to help manage these behaviours and support our teachers. Each individual case and their support requirements in schools needs to be promptly evaluated, existing supports reevaluated and actioned quickly. Because it’s not working, it’s not sustainable to keep going on as we are. It’s not our teachers job to pick up the the extra load the Health Department and Education Department are neglecting to manage.
Regards,
Chelsea Rutter
Sent from my iPhone
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