Mother of autistic teenager says son no longer attends school because of lack of support

The mother of an autistic teenager says her son became so disengaged with education when he began Year 11 that he stopped attending school altogether – and she’s adamant the lack of a transition plan is to blame. What the department said.

Education Minister Roger Jaensch. Picture: Chris Kidd

The mother of an autistic teenager says a lack of support from the Department for Education, Children and Young People is to blame for her son’s complete disengagement from school.

Sharon O’Beirne said her son, Christian Pancik, had “a really rough experience” trying to transition from Year 10 to Year 11.

As a result, he no longer attends school at all.

“We got to the end of Grade 10 with no transition plan in place,” Ms O’Beirne said.

“We were really worried, we were really concerned because Christian wasn’t attending school at that point anyway.”

Christian Pancik 16 who is autistic and his mother Sharon O'Beirne. Picture: Chris Kidd

Ms O’Beirne said she tried desperately to obtain support from the department and even contacted Education Minister Roger Jaensch’s office for help.

In a bid to put pressure on the department to act, she shared her story with the Mercury last year.

But Ms O’Beirne said her efforts were ultimately in vain.

“In the end it all became too hard. Christian didn’t want to attend [school]. We had no answers from the school, from the … department,” she said.

Ms O’Beirne’s comments come after the state government released an independent review of its Educational Adjustments Disability Funding Model, which was introduced in 2020 and offers additional support to schools for students with disability, aiming to improve their access, participation and engagement in quality education.

Since the model was brought in, an additional 3134 students with disability have been supported, while 80 additional full-time equivalent support teachers have been funded.

Mr Jaensch said last week that the review, conducted by KPMG, had confirmed the model was having “a positive impact overall”.

However, the report also made 12 recommendations to improve the model, including that the department should consider investigating whether it could provide extra support for the transition of students with disability from primary to high school.

The government has accepted all of the recommendations.

Labor's Josh Willie speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart.

But Labor education spokesman Josh Willie said the minister had been “sitting on” the report for almost six months and accused him of “effectively avoiding accountability”.

“He hasn’t outlined a plan to implement the recommendations, he hasn’t outlined any additional funding,” Mr Willie said.

Mr Willie said it was “an absolute tragedy” that Christian was no longer in school.

“We want to see all children achieve their potential in the education system. There is a clear need for Minister Jaensch to do more than he is,” he said.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the government’s disability education reforms had been “welcomed”.

“The report points to [our] good investment and we need to build on that now, which is why we have accepted the 12 recommendations,” he said.