Western Australian enquiry into Autism supports in schools.
Thank you for this opportunity to give you our experience and recommendations our hope is to create a better experience for our children and future generations.
First, we like many of the family’s that will be submitting their responses we are a Neurologically diverse family, particular to this is our three children:
11y Girl ASD and ADHD included is a physical disorder. - Catholic Education
7 y girl ASD Level 3.2, ADHD and DCD - Catholic Education
4-year-old boy level 3 PDD and query - ADHD. - Specialist Government Education.
Our experience within the school environment has been turbulent.
In this text, we describe the educational situations of our three children. First our son attends a specialised Government school that provides excellent support and assistance for his needs, including emotional regulation and sensory challenges. However, we are concerned that the school might not be able to challenge him intellectually due to his high level of intelligence.
Our 7-year-old daughter attends a Catholic primary school and faces significant challenges. She is behind her peers academically, receives limited educational assistant (EA) time, and lacks emotional and social support. Our daughter was diagnosed in 2021 after an earlier assessment was inadequate. We tried to enrol her in a specialist school, which she loved, but family legal circumstances led to her returning to the Catholic school against her wishes. Since this her distress has increased, including high levels of school refusal. Despite efforts to improve her situation through meetings, communication, and therapy involvement, our daughter continues to struggle with inadequate support, masking her emotions, social exclusion, and educational difficulties.
Our 11-year-old daughter, also attending the same Catholic school, recently received a diagnosis. She faces social challenges, including bullying and isolation. Change is difficult for her, impacting her mental health and leading to self-injury. She struggles to ask for help and often internalises her struggles. In terms of schooling, it took until year 5 for some classroom supports to be established. She also deals with toileting and eating problems, which the school seems to lack support for, causing confusion between the school and NDIS about responsibilities.
The overall concern expresses that schools, especially non-government schools, aren’t being held accountable for adequately supporting and educating children with special needs. Our children’s experiences highlight the challenges they face in getting appropriate support and education within their current school environments.
We have experienced a challenging journey over several years to access support services for our children. We have encountered misinformation from workers, a lack of awareness from school representatives, and inconsistency between what school principals say and do. Often parents such as us feel unfairly labeled as aggressive
while advocating for their children and has experienced a lack of follow-up on actions discussed in meetings with therapists. We also highlight the extended timeline it takes to implement even minimal support, which often coincides with yearly changes in classroom, teacher, and routine, requiring their children to constantly readjust.
Recommendations:
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Precise and accurate definitions of adjustments are required for students. By clearly defining the understanding of “reasonable adjustments”.
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Information about disability standards to be provided in multiple inclusive and accessible formats.
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Co-designed with disability individuals and their caregivers, outline for fundamental guidelines regarding implementation of frameworks, including curriculum changes, and accessibility.
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The legislation of inclusive voices within education boards and parent councils with a requirement of a minimum two disability representatives (parents, students or caregivers) with voting abilities.
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Implementation policies for compliance, communications, and complaints are reportable and published with ratings from the NCCD, including reportable. funding allocations.
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Mandatory disability advocates/workers/consultants within education settings.
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Comprehensive Guidelines for staff and principles to follow with implementations to adjustments, including those recommended by medical providers.
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All schools need specialist education providers and areas for inclusive but equitable learning/ personal needs requirements.
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The creation of a disability education council for districts to assist staff members and parents and ensure regulations are met, including assessing the adjustments needed in consultation with the parents, students and school.
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Mandating for Catholic and independent schools to be included in the above recommendations