Education and Health Standing Committee
Inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools
Dear Committee Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective and experience on supporting autistic children and young people in Western Australian schools. I appreciate the Committee inquiring into this important matter and welcome the recommendations the Committee makes into how best changes can be made to the current education system to ensure that all autistic students have the opportunity to access a high quality, inclusive and appropriate education.
I am writing from my personal context – as a Level 3 Classroom Teacher in our Public Education System – and as the mother of two Autistic Daughters. In my 27 years of teaching, I have had the challenging privilege of teaching (without training, of course) hundreds of Autistic students, yet as a teacher and a mother, I struggle with the systemic discrimination against these vulnerable children every day.
I have seen this discrimination in my own classroom every day, and it is heavily driven by the lack of resources for our neurodiverse population of students.
Now, as a mother of two autistic children, I am disheartened and beyond exhausted by this discriminatory system. The staff within this system push themselves past breaking point. I am already broken.
I am broken everyday when my oldest daughter pleads with me to not go to school.
I am broken everyday when my youngest daughter’s school staff contact me on a daily basis because my daughter has been dysregulated and there has been yet another critical incident. The same daughter was suicidal at 6 years old. This was predominantly due to the schooling system’s rigidity in accommodating her needs. Teachers restrained her on a daily basis for her flight response to triggers. She would literally flee up a tree every day for a whole term. They literally picked her up and carried her to class. Against all Team Teach protocols.
I dropped my work fraction so I could assist in training her school staff to support her. My unpaid work in this situation helped, and the incidents lessened. She survived (not thrived) due to this, and due to the staff volunteer hours in supporting her (over 100 hrs per term.) I am so dismayed that teachers and EAs have to give up their own time to support our neurodivergent students, as this time is not afforded to them within their regular work hours.
Unfortunately, my daughter’s full time EA resigned as the pay was too low (she went to be a receptionist – it pays more) and now my daughter is escalating past the point of establishing her own identity as a violent truant. At 8 years old.
Her highly-skilled EA left our under-staffed system due to not being recognised financially for these skills essential in supporting our most vulnerable students.
My daughter’s escalation is a direct result of the school trauma inflicted upon her – by violent restraints from two staff who opposed her going through the wrong door in the library when she attempted to borrow a book (reading is her hyperfocus or “special interest”.) I enlisted the help of a DDWA advocate to help uncover their collusion and attempts to cover-up their Code-of-Conduct breaches. The effect of this particular restraint has been quite traumatic for all – upon returning to school after this “restorative process” – she is now wetting the bed.
My youngest’s new EA’s attention and support is now split across three other diagnosed and imputed Autistic children in the classroom, and my daughter continues to escalate. This is the usual situation across the system (I have worked in a variety of schools and ICSEAs throughout the decades.)
My broken self now sends my broken daughter to school everyday, as I break her trust in me to keep her safe. She is not safe at school. As schools are not resourced with facilities, time and adequate training to support our students. And I know this because I work in this broken system.
My oldest daughter’s year 4 teacher refused to believe that my daughter needed diagnosing. She claimed my oldest was “just sensitive”. She even gave me a book to read entitled “The Sensitive Child”. This is after the Level 3 pre-primary teacher referred her to the public health system for ASD diagnosis. Since then, a psych, two speech therapists and a paediatrician confirm she is Autistic and Dyslexic (even though the teacher said her reading and spelling is “fine”.) Clearly teachers are not trained well enough in identifying these issues with our children.
Due to the under-resourcing of this system, this government is in breach of Article 7 from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child with a Disability. The system does not afford her these rights, and it doesn’t afford my students these rights either.
The prevalence of autism in WA and projected demand for support in schools
Over my decades of teaching – I have seen an increase in the number of neurodivergent students, including Autistic students in classrooms. Our Director General is on record as stating the statistic as one in four. One in four students is neurodivergent – and a large proportion of these students are Autistic. In the secondary school where I currently teach – 68 students are diagnosed Autistic, with hundreds of others diagnosed with other conditions who are using the Autistic students’ EAs. We have a total of 271 students on our Learning Support List (out of 1200 students) with diagnoses, and dozens on waitlists for diagnosis.
- Current support available for Autistic students in WA schools: On average, if we are lucky, we have one EA in our classroom (if any at all) and their attention is spread between the six other diagnosed students in the room (as well as those
who need extra assistance due to trauma, low literacy levels etc…) This is six students out of 32 students, out of five classes, which totals to an approximate of 30 IEPs we are supposed to be thoroughly versed in, and implementing – as well as being well-versed in the other 125 students’ learning styles, challenges and backgrounds. This workload is impossible, and as such, our most vulnerable get left behind.
Knowing this is demoralising, and is leading to so many of my colleagues resigning or retiring early due to lack of job satisfaction, due to the guilt of not catering to the needs of each one of their students, and due to also being accountable to all parents with the minimal time and resources we are allocated. This system is discriminatory. It is broken.
2.a. Evidence based practices are implemented across the school system
The current approach is clearly not working – with Home-schoolers increasing to over 6000 in WA. School Can’t continues to grow, as the current ABA strategies continue to fail our students. That “evidence- based” approach is based on flawed evidence – as the silenced voiceless are ignored. The voiceless being Autistic adults who have endured the behaviourist thus ableist approach of ABA.
Please see the evidence-based approach of Dr Ross Greene – CPS. I implore you to adopt this approach, as other schools have around the world.
2.b. School supports are co-ordinated with other service areas to respond to the needs of autistic students and their families
There is very little coordinated approach in the support of our Autistic children at school. NDIS will not support a broken education system and fund education of Autistic students. Every LAC tells participants and their representatives that the school needs to do this. The school asks parents to get NDIS to help. I have been sick and tired of being the unpaid support coordinator and find it easier to cut out the “Middle-man” and main trigger – our broken education system. As a parent, I am now trying to juggle a mix of home-schooling, therapy AND working, as this is easier than dealing with the rigid and under-resourced school system.
We need more OTs, Speech Therapists and Pscyhs – allied health professionals as wrap around services on the school site to support our Autistic students and train teachers and EAs.
- Strategies in other jurisdictions that support school systems to respond to the needs of autistic students and the applicability of these strategies to WA
I have not had time to research other systems (due to being over-worked.) But, anecdotally, when staff volunteer their own hours and resources to our Autistic students – the students begin to flourish. This is due to the time that it takes to establish and maintain these essential relationships – which means reducing class sizes and workload and increasing DOTT time for teachers to liaise more with parents, allied health providers and other supports.
Again – please see Dr Ross Greene’s CPS approach.
I believe that is essential that our education system change to meet the needs of the autistic student community. For all autistic students and young people to fulfill their potential within WA schools, we must adopt neuroaffirming models of care, address systemic discrimination and disproportionate disadvantage because of policies such as suspensions and exclusions policy.
I believe that disabled and autistic voices should be consulted, and collaboration must be meaningful on all matters that affect autistic and disabled students within WA schools. These voices must come from the community, and it is integral that all disabled and neurodivergent community members be given the opportunity to participate.
Further, I urge the Western Australian government to fulfill their obligations under international, national, and state legislation (including the UN CRPD, the DDA, the DSE and the WA State Disability Strategy) by committing to a fully inclusive education system.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss the points raised in this submission with the Committee and can be contacted through Symone Wheatley-Hey at Square Peg Round Whole (WA).
I ask that the committee remove all identifying information pertaining to my personal contact details prior to publication of this submission on the Committee’s website.
Thank you for the opportunity to make this submission.
Yours sincerely
This submission was prepared with the assistance of Square Peg Round Whole WA advocacy group.