Forcing Autistic students back into school will cost lives
It’s no secret that many Autistic young people struggle with school attendance. There are a number of reasons for why this happens, but at it’s most basic level we can argue there is a correlation between school-based trauma and an inability to attend educational institutions. Despite years of pushing for better support, the government has now launched Moments Matter, Attendance Counts. This initiative aims to return students who are persistently absent back into the education system. This obviously presents an issue for Autistic students and their families. Such students are often persistently absent, and campaigns such as this one seem to imply that it is a matter of willingness, rather than acknowledge the complexity of the situation.
Why do Autistic students struggle to attend school?
When it comes to being Autistic within the education system, there are innumerable reasons why one might struggle to be in attendance on a daily basis. The simplest way of describing it is that the school environment is often traumatic to Autistic students. One of the first things that comes to mind is the hostile attitudes of education staff towards Autistic young people. Russell et al (2023) found that teachers generally had positive attitudes towards students with special educational needs (SEN). This however is not reflected in the experiences of Autistic students themselves. Brede et al (2017) found that Autistic students had overwhelmingly negative experiences within education and that staff attitudes and training were a major factor in this.
Another contributory factor is the various ways Autistic children can be traumatised (more on this here). School represents a place where students are exposed to sensory trauma, invalidation, and bullying and victimisation on a daily basis. Is it any surprise that Autistic students will often be forcibly excluded from this system that by design is hostile to them? Students report being treated as “the problem” with staff shouting at them and excluding them from the classroom (Gray et al, 2023).
“The teachers shouted a lot, and they were like really aggressive… they would start shouting at me because I tend to zone out a lot as well, and I always ask the person next to me what’s going on, so then I got told off for that, and I got sent out a lot.”
Student Interviewee as recorded in Gray et al (2023)
How is removing a child from a classroom repeatedly any different to them not being in attendance?
What are the governments aims with this campaign?
The Moments Matter campaign has a particularly short-sighted goal in mind.
“More than one million children and young people will be supported into regular education as part of a major expansion of the attendance hubs, which provide a range of tailored support to families and pupils to boost time in school.”
Quote from gov.uk page about the campaign
I note the ambiguous mention of attendance hubs in this quote, and wanted to look into what they actually do. It turns out that they have nothing to do with the students themselves, and are instead aimed at the schools, giving them space to workshop ideas around improving attendance. In there own words:
“
You can access support by expressing an interest in being part of an attendance hub. After we’ve matched you to a hub, the lead school will invite you to virtual hub meetings. These virtual hub meetings are an opportunity to:
- refine your approach to managing attendance in school
- share good practice for managing attendance with others
- discuss any common challenges you’re facing
You should use what you learn during the meetings to make changes to your school’s existing processes for managing attendance.”
Government Guidance on Attendance Hubs
It’s also important to note the expansion of mentoring models aimed at improving attendance rates in school:
“The programme will see trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September 2024.””
Quote from gov.uk page about the campaign
As a professional mentor myself, this concerns me. Mentoring is not a simple field of work. Particularly when working with Autistic students, one needs to have neurodivergence competency. You can not just walk in off the street at mentor an Autistic person. I would also note that mentoring where the goal is set by a third party, and not the mentee, is not how mentoring should be conducted.
The link between school attendance and mental health
It has been assumed that good attendance correlates with good mental health (Finning et al, 2022). When working with Autistic students however this becomes less clear. Much of what is reported in the Autistic community is that Autistic young people experience worsening of their mental health within mainstream school environments. It’s important to remember that Autistic children are 28x more likely to think about or attempt suicide compared to Autistic people of all ages who are just 9x more likely (statistics from Royal College of Psychiatrists). The main difference I see in experiences between Autistic adults and young people is that Autistic adults are not forced to attend educational institutions.
Attendance it would seem does not always mean better wellbeing. For some Autistic people and their families, it can be the difference between a happy life, and saying goodbye to a loved one for the last time. This campaign shows no respect for the people who have lost their lives to the school system.
I would like to direct people to this article from Autistic Inclusive Meets that gives moving testimony on the realities of being Autistic in the mainstream education system.
Can school take a trauma-informed approach to Autistic students?
In terms of taking trauma-informed approaches to Autistic students, research is inconsistent. The best consensus I could find was Stratford et al (2020). This paper found that the most change in trauma symptoms was found in health settings, not educational settings. One could argue that given the rate of trauma in Autistic populations, all schools should take a trauma-informed approach. However, I would note that the educational setting is probably not the best environment for dealing with school-related trauma. Doing such would be similar to providing trauma therapy on a battlefield; how can we work on our trauma while we are fighting to survive?
What can be done instead to help get Autistic students into education?
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner states that requests for EHCP’s (Education, Health, and Care Plans) have risen by 23% since 2021. The total number of children with an active EHCP has risen by 9.5% to a total of 517,000 children. Despite this, the EHCP process remains a bureaucratic minefield that often fails to give Autistic students the support they are legally entitled to. In my opinion, overhauling the entire EHCP process and improving access to meaningful alternatives to mainstream education would be more effective for ensuring that children have access to education.
Moments do matter. Right now at this moment we are standing at a crossroads, deciding if we should push antiquated models of school attendance and achievement or fight for a system that is inclusive of all students, not just those of a predominant neurocognitive style. Attendance only counts if Autistic students are able to learn while in school. In the institutions current form, no amount of attendance will help. You can’t learn effectively while trying to survive. It’s time for the government to listen to marginalised students, and not blindly create new campaigns in the name of “best interests”.
Make sure you check out David’s new book about how CAMHS fail to support Autistic young people
References
Brede, J., Remington, A., Kenny, L., Warren, K., & Pellicano, E. (2017). Excluded from school: Autistic students’ experiences of school exclusion and subsequent re-integration into school. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 2, 2396941517737511.
Finning, K., Ford, T., & Moore, D. A. (Eds.). (2022). Mental health and attendance at school. Cambridge University Press.
Gray, L., Hill, V., & Pellicano, E. (2023). “He’s shouting so loud but nobody’s hearing him”: A multi-informant study of autistic pupils’ experiences of school non-attendance and exclusion. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 8, 23969415231207816.
Russell, A., Scriney, A., & Smyth, S. (2023). Educator Attitudes towards the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders in mainstream education: a systematic review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10(3), 477-491.
Stratford, B., Cook, E., Hanneke, R., Katz, E., Seok, D., Steed, H., … & Temkin, D. (2020). A scoping review of school-based efforts to support students who have experienced trauma. School Mental Health, 12, 442-477.
