Education and Health Standing Committee
Parliament House
4 Harvest Terrace
WEST PERTH WA 6005\
13 July, 2023
Re: Inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools
The WA Primary Principals’ Association (WAPPA) is pleased to make a submission to the Inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools.
WAPPA is the professional association of choice for public primary school leaders in Western Australia. WAPPA represents over 1000 members, consisting of principals and deputy principals, from across the state. WAPPA’s membership covers approximately 85% of WA’s 553 primary schools. WAPPA also comprises members from a range of school types that include primary students, such as Ed Support, District High Schools and K-12 settings. In total there are over 600 schools in WA, in which primary students attend.
The WAPPA Board consists of the President and 11 Board Members, who represent the vast diversity of school leaders across our state. WAPPA’s 2022-2024 strategic plan, Strengthening our Support outlines our four pillars of Support, Advocacy, Connection and Leadership Development. It is through this document and subsequent strategies, that WAPPA’s core business of advocating for improved primary outcomes, focuses on the importance of equitable resourcing of primary schools.
Our submission is based upon the professional opinions and experiences of public primary school leaders, WAPPA position papers, reports and research projects undertaken on behalf of WAPPA. In my role as President, I regularly travel the state to hear specifically about the concerns of school leaders and we also have a Support Line for members to call when they require advice. In addition to these strategies, WAPPA brings 32 Chapter Chairs and 11 Board members together to our State Assembly, twice a year, to discuss the issues that impact our members most.
In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the majority of this work revolving around students with complex needs. Primarily, a lack of available support and resources, to help school leaders cater for the increasing number of students with Autism, imputed disability, mental health issues, behavioural concerns and learning delays.
WAPPA feels that our association is the most appropriate group of professionals to be able to provide information to this inquiry. Unlike secondary, Catholic and Independent schools, government primary schools are located in every corner of the state and as such, tend to be the furthest from any appropriate levels of support. Government primary schools consist of the largest cohorts of students across the education system, which consists of the largest percentage of students with disabilities, whilst also receiving the smallest portion of funding. As a result, our members face the challenge firsthand, on a daily basis, of trying to adequately provide support for students with Autism.
Given the combination of inequitable funding and increasing complexity, WAPPA has seen a significant increase in members feeling frustrated and overwhelmed at their inability to access the necessary support services needed for their students. Their concerns consistently fall into the categories of wait times, access in regional areas, lack of staffing, poor co-ordination of services and insufficient length of support. As would be expected, the services provided in regional, remote areas, are at the greatest need and therefore, under the greatest strain.
Given the terms of reference of this inquiry and the role of school principals in supporting students, WAPPA’s responses fall predominantly into areas 1 and 2 of the inquiry;
- The prevalence of autism in WA and projected demand for support in schools
- How will an increase in the prevalence of autism affect the availability of support for autistic students in schools?
- Currently in WA schools the number of students presenting to schools in need of support for diagnosed and imputed disability is growing rapidly.
- Whilst the Department of Education WA, would have exact figures on the number of students with Autism, anecdotally, WAPPA could report that the majority of schools across WA have multiple students with an Autism diagnosis enrolled and an even larger number of students who are not diagnosed. This increase places a great strain on the system’s ability to support these students.
- At a system level, there are insufficient specialist locations, known as Autism Specialised Learning Programs (SLPs) for students to enrol.
- Where SLPs do exist, the criteria to gain enrolment is so prescriptive, that quite often the students who would benefit most from being enrolled, are not enrolled and subsequently sent back to a mainstream school, where there is far less support available.
- Statewide Services personnel who operate from the School of Special Educational Needs; Disability (SSEN;D) are already stretched to capacity and maintain minimal contact with Autistic students across the state. SSEN:D staff work predominantly with staff and rarely have sufficient resources enough to participate in meaningful classroom observations, along with the development and review of plans.
- Regional and remote areas struggle even more to obtain SSEN;D staff and paraprofessionals, who can support schools and families with Autistic students.
- All areas of staffing within WA schools are currently experiencing shortages. The increasing prevalence of Autism in schools, significantly adds to the demand of education assistants, when there is already an undersupply and more so in regional and remote areas.
- WAPPA holds a strong belief, through anecdotal evidence, that non-Government schools do not look favourably upon students who present with complex needs. It is believed that their practice is to either encourage parents to enrol their children in Government schools, or they enrol students with much lesser needs, whilst having the funds to provide full-time support. These practices continue to place greater strain on Government schools to meet the needs of all Autistic students requiring support.
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Current support available for autistic students in WA schools
- Evidence-based practices are implemented across the school system
- Whilst staff at Education Support facilities and SLPs would have access to ongoing training and development programs, the majority of students with Autism are enrolled in mainstream schools. The majority of these schools would employ education assistants, who may have little to no training, or a basic EA Certification.
- Education assistants in mainstream schools rely heavily on the expertise of SSEN;D staff, and as mentioned, this cohort of staff are already significantly under resourced.
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The strategies most utilised across mainstream settings to support students with Autism would consist of:
- Use of visual cues and planners.
- Use of de-escalation strategies to regulate students when they are heightened.
- Use of distraction techniques to move children away from areas of discomfort and to prevent them from escalating.
- Use of supportive technology resources, such as iPads and assistive equipment.
- Individual support to complete classroom learning tasks, such as repeating instructions, ensuring students are on task and answering any queries they have.
- Supervision of students in group activities and external environments such as playgrounds.
- Use of positive handling and de-escalation techniques during incidents of physical aggression.
- What are the challenges and successes for implementing evidence-based practices across the school system?
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Students are currently funded on a medical based model, rather than a needs based model. This means that without a diagnosis, some students will simply never attract any additional funding for support.
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As has been published in recent times, it is becoming extremely difficult for parents to obtain appointments with paediatricians in WA, meaning many students will never be formally assessed and diagnosed, but remain in the mainstream setting, with no additional support.
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Students who are transient and require support might never receive a diagnosis given the waitlists.
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Students who move to WA from other parts of the country, or world, have been subject to not having an existing diagnosis recognised, therefore requiring parents to start the process again in WA, simply to receive necessary support.
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Students in mainstream schools who do receive funding through the Department of Education, are most likely to receive funding between Level 1-3. ($10, 500 to $39,000) In relation to full time equivalent support, $39,000 would provide approximately 1-3 days of education assistant time.
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Class sizes in WA fluctuate from 20 students in Kindergarten, to 32 in Year 4-6 classes. The presence of Autistic students within these classes, places a significant obligation and workload impact on class teachers and education assistants to ensure all students learning, behavioural and developmental needs are being met. In reality, the staff are rarely able to ensure plans are developed, implemented and reviewed, for all the students who require some form of differentiation and support.
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In recent times, there is a growing trend for parents to claim that ‘best practice’ is for their child to be treated exactly the same as all other children and to be accepted for their neurodivergence. In these cases, schools are often unable to provide any support, as parents refuse to engage with the school psychologist services or SSEN;D staff.
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Furthermore, when the school does take measures to provide support for Autistic students, as well as ensure a safe learning environment for all students, they are often subject to complaints from parents of the Autistic children, who feel their child is being treated unfairly and discriminated against, as it is their wish for their child to be fully integrated.
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The growing number of students requiring support, who do not receive it, has resulted in school principals having to make significant sacrifices, to what would be considered best practice. For example;
- Classes regularly have multiple Autistic students placed into a single class, with their support time combined to ensure a full-time education assistants can be appointed to the class.
- Decisions must be made about when to sacrifice an education assistant being present with a child. Quite often this can be at break times such as recess and lunch, during assemblies and school excursions, or during specialist classes such as Phys ed, music and Art.
- Funding provided is required to cover a range of support resources, inclusive of professional learning and technological supports such as iPads. When these resources are purchased, it takes funds away from the total amount that could be used to provide greater education assistant time.
- What is the interaction between school supports and other service areas that autistic students are accessing?
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Schools are currently inundated with requests from NDIS providers, requesting access to students on school site, during school hours, and in some cases,
requesting that school staff are present to ensure a duty of care. This practice has become increasingly popular, due to the convenience for both parents and NDIS providers. However, this places a great deal of pressure on schools to accommodate these requests and results in students missing important content in other areas.
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In many cases there simply is insufficient room within the school for external support workers to provide perform their duties. When schools have ‘pushed back’ from having a growing number of NDIS providers working on site, they are often portrayed as uncooperative to parents.
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Schools have regularly struggled to develop collaborative arrangements with NDIS service providers, as they are often unwilling to share any of their plans, strategies, resources, or provide summaries of what support has occurred. Conversely, they make very high expectations of what the schools should be doing to support them.
- What is the interaction between State and Commonwealth funded services?
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WA school leaders have to complete the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data survey on an annual basis. This survey currently indicates 1 in 5 children in WA schools have been identified as having a diagnosed or imputed disability, according to the Department of Education’s 2021/22 Annual Report.
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It is unclear as to whether schools receive any funding through the NCCD, upon completing the survey. Funds are sent from the Federal Government to the State Government and it is unknown to WAPPA, what this amount is, or what percentage of these funds makes its way to students.
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Students in WA schools are funded through the Education department, with school leaders completing an Application for Disability Allocation. As outlined above, this is a medical based model and not a needs based model.
It is WAPPA’s strong belief that the recent trends in staff shortages, increased workload and burnout, are a direct reflection of having to cater for the growing number of students in the system, who present with complex needs. When coupled with a significant lack of human and financial resources and increasing parental demands, the job of ensuring all students academic, social and developmental needs are being met, as become increasingly more difficult.
In providing recommendations to address this growing need, WAPPA believes the strategies to explore include:
- Significantly greater amount of funding to be provided to primary schools, to ensure early intervention strategies can be implemented. The earlier students can access support, the greater the ability to produce positive outcomes in primary school and into high school and society.
- Fund schools at a greater amount, that allows them to employ suitable levels of education assistants, as well as their own paraprofessionals, such as Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers and the like.
- Significantly increase the number of specialists within the Department of Education’s Statewide Services SSEN;D teams, allowing these staff the ability to spend more time with the students, staff and schools who need them most.
- Ensure SSEN:D services are equally and easily accessible to schools across the entire state.
- Increase the number of School Development Days, to allow schools the ability to provide training for all staff members, in the areas that are required the most and that do not require school leaders to compete with other priorities such as Curriculum, Planning, School Review and the like.
- Increase the number of personnel who are available to support schools in managing very complex cases, whether that be students in need of support, or parents in need of having their concerns addressed. Such as strategy would allow school leaders to focus on the core business of supporting improved outcomes for students.
I thank you for providing WAPPA the opportunity to make a submission on behalf of our members and I would be more than happy to provide further information to the inquiry, if needed.
Kind regards,
redacted
Niel Smith
President
WA Primary Principals’ Association