Select Committee on Autism
Submission 149
I have recently experienced poor communication from a primary school in Perth when I engaged them about enrolling my autistic son into the Specialist Learning Program for children with autism.
When I enquired with the school, I found it difficult to obtain any of the suitability criteria from the program coordinator. I set out my son’s limitations and had directly asked her to give me some indication of what she was looking for, but she would not provide any information until an observation tour was held. It was more than one year after I had first contacted the school, when they finally provided an observation tour for me, only to realise upon attending how obvious it was that the program was not suited for children with severe autism like my son.
I had previously tried to obtain more information about the program from the people within the Autism Association of Western Australia, I found that they too did not know about details of the program and the selection criteria. They recommended I contact the school directly. Therefore, it is important that the schools running the program can provide a basic list of the suitability requirements to parents.
The school’s website provides that the program is for ‘students from Kindergarten to Year 6 with autism who do not have the competencies at the point of enrolment to participate successfully full time in mainstream classrooms’. There is almost no other information about the program. Instead, you are directed to call the school to get more information.
The ‘2018 Specialised Learning Programs for Students with (ASD) Parent Information’ fact sheet issued by the Department of Education lists the following as the specific eligibility criteria:
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a diagnosis of autism
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no diagnosed intellectual disability
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significant social, emotional and/or behavioural issues and challenges directly attributed to the impact of autism
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independent self-management of personal care requirements; and
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eligibility for enrolment in Western Australian public schools. Based on these sources of information, someone with a severe form of autism, like my son, would meet the requirements of the program. But the reality is that once parents go to the observation tour at the school, they will find out that their child is not suitable. It is not enough to say the program is for those ‘who do not have the competencies at the point of enrolment to participate successfully full-time in mainstream classrooms’ because it is too vague. The problem is that I had to wait for over a year to be able to find this out.
It is clear to me that only children with a less severe form of autism who have certain qualities (are higher functioning) can thrive in the classroom environment I observed. These children are more likely to be able to transition into mainstream classrooms. The program is not designed for children who have a severe form of autism because they would be unlikely to keep up with the demands of the program and the pace of the classroom.
Therefore, the relevant schools should publish a basic list of the additional suitability requirements they require for enrolment into the program that parents can access themselves.