Autistic kids refused enrolment in schools

Children with autism are being refused entry or discouraged from attending mainstream government schools at which they are entitled to a place, a new survey reveals.

Kids with autism are being refused entry to schools or discouraged from enrolling, a new survey finds

More than one in three families have either been refused entry or discouraged from enrolling their autistic child in a school, and half of those were in the public school system where all children by law have the right to attend.

As the nation’s disability system pivots to supporting more children with autism and developmental delay outside the National Disability Insurance Scheme, a survey has found almost half the schools attended by autistic children were reluctant to use “accommodations” such as sensory equipment, fidget toys or preferential seating.

The latest National Parent Autism Education Survey conducted on behalf of Autism Awareness Australia found such was the lack of support in schools for children with autism that six in 10 families had considered alternative forms of schooling for their children, such as homeschooling or distance learning.

Disturbingly, 16 per cent of children with autism say they are “very unhappy” at school.

Autism Awareness Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson said the survey of more than 850 families from all states and territories, with more than 80 per cent having a child on the NDIS, showed how much work was ahead of state and federal governments to transition more autism support away from the scheme.

“These results show that even with an NDIS package, children with autism are being discouraged from attending schools and not being given the right environment to thrive if they are allowed in,” Ms Rogerson said. “Being pushed away from a public school is really not on. They are obliged to take these kids.

Autism Awareness Australia CEO Nicole Rogerson.

“How is it possible that public schools are not held to account for this behaviour? What message does it send?” she said.

The NDIS review last year called for more disability support to be provided outside the scheme, saying in its decade in operation it had become the “only lifeboat in the ocean” for people with disability.

It proposed a new system of “foundational supports” to be delivered outside the scheme in mainstream settings. Critical among those is schools.

Children with a diagnosis of autism or developmental delay are the fastest growing cohort on the NDIS, which has now reached 660,000 participants.

Some 9 per cent of five- to seven-year-old children in Australia are on the scheme, according to the latest scheme data.

In December, national cabinet agreed to develop a new system of foundational supports outside the NDIS, funded 50-50 between the states and the commonwealth with state funding capped at $10bn over five years. The deal was part of a broader GST deal for more health and hospital services, worth about $25bn to the states to the end of the decade.

Last week, as the Albanese government was introducing new NDIS legislation to reflect some of the review’s recommendations, state premiers called for a delay, saying the draft bill didn’t reflect the agreement and it was unclear how much it would cost.

The bill was introduced anyway, and will now be the subject of consultation with the disability community and other parties.

There is a time imperative. Nat­ional cabinet last April imposed an NDIS cost growth target of 8 per cent by 2026, with scheme costs running at 16 per cent annual growth in recent years.

The government has sought to allay the fears of parents, saying there would be no changes to NDIS funding or eligibility unless appropriate supports outside the scheme were available.