From: .
Sent: Monday, 12 June 2023 1:47 PM
To: Committee, Education & Health Standing laehsc@parliament.wa.gov.au
Subject: Submission for Support for Autistic Children & Young People in Schools
Submission for Support for Autistic Children & Young People in Schools
I would like to submit the following for consideration for the Inquiry into Support for Autistic Children and Young People In Schools. I would appreciate my name being kept confidential at all times, but am happy to have my submission published.
We are raising an | lyear son with ASD, ADHD and anxiety who is at his second primary school.
We originally enrolled him into a small catholic school. Our experience there was that once he reached Year One, all aide support was withdrawn and he was left to cope on his own, despite the school receiving funding for him. When issues arose in late term 3 of year 4, we pointed out that it was totally unfair for his teacher to have our son (ASD L2/3/ADHD/Anxiety) plus 28 other children in her care, with not even an hour of aide support a week. We were told verbally in a meeting “to move him to their Ed support unit or leave the school by week 4 term 4”. My request for him to continue in the mainstream classroom with aide support was rejected with no further consideration. We ended up leaving the school and moving to a public primary school where he initially shared a full time aide with another student and still has high levels of aide support to enable him to integrate into the mainstream classroom where he is happiest.
My concerns are mostly how the Catholic schooling system appears to be a law unto themselves with no
supervision from the department of education when issues arise. We complained to CEWA, and a lawyer told us we were well within our legal rights to have our child educated in the mainstream classroom with aide support, but short of engaging in legal action via Human Rights Commission, we had no pathway to make CEWA use our son’s funding to support him in the mainstream class.
In my opinion, if CEWA are obtaining funding from the state/federal government for disabled students, there should be some accountability to the government and oversight by the government, as well as some opacity for parents as to how this is used to support their child.
Overall there also seems to be little recognition or support of the fact that all current studies on educating disabled children support fully inclusive schooling for students with disabilities as it is associated with the best outcomes for both the disabled child and other children. This is a uniform recommendation from the World Health Organisation downwards.
Our child wants to be mainstream schooled. He may not get the social side of things right frequently, but he enjoys the interactions with the other children and has no interest in being homeschooled or in a special ed facility. My opinion is that a mainstream education gives him the best chance of a mainstream life. He does not see himself as different, nor do we - he just needs extra help and support. Every school should be required to provide mainstream education with support to every family that requests it. That was not our experience in the Catholic schooling system and it is likely limiting the life outcomes of many disabled individuals.
The parents of autistic kids have one of the hardest jobs in the world. It is relentless and 24/7/365. Even when the child is at school the low grade anxiety is constant about how their day is going, and the feeling of
being “on call” for the school at the drop of a hat if anything happens is always there. I never even give a moment’s thought to my two other neurotypical children - I take for granted that they will complete each and every day at school successfully. But with autism many days of school are missed, my career as a successful veterinarian is long forgotten, and I am one of the “lucky” ones who thankfully financially doesn’t need to work so can be available to the school to swoop in when he isn’t coping. So so many families are stuck in the situation of needing a dual income yet having a child who cannot attend school.
The department of education should prioritise a safe, kind and supportive schooling environment for every autistic child, so that at the bare minimum these parents get a break each day, given the load and stress they are permanently under. They say that you judge a society on how they treat their most at risk - autistic children and their parents deserve every bit of funding, time and support available so that they and their children feel supported, welcome and are treated with kindness at every step of their school journey. And private schools should not be able to “gate keep”, or “manage out” disabled students - every child should be able to attend school with their siblings if they wish. Schooling has been the single biggest source of stress in our entire journey with our autistic child, and given we have struggled as a stable, educated and wealthy family who are more than capable of advocating for their child, I can only imagine what other less fortunate families have endured.
The other point I wish to raise is that there needs to be thought given to significant flexibility in school attendance. Half day attendance, rostered “mental health” days off, avoiding certain subjects which cause anxiety, going home for lunch, online learning and other flexible options of support should be uniformly available to disabled students. In this day and age, school should no longer be a compulsory 5 day a week, 6hrs a day fixed recipe for each and every child regardless of their struggles. Many autistic children would cope far better with school with less hours overall. A central agency who can assess and approve a flexible attendance strategy for disabled students who need it would be amazing.
I hope this helps your committee to understand the issue of autistic children accessing education. Small class sizing, significant funding increases for aide support, flexibility with school attendance should all be encouraged.
Kind regards,
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