On the face of it, official figures which show a three-fold rise in autism among schoolchildren are alarming. The Department of Education has moved from using an autism prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent, or one in 20 children, in less than a decade. For most experts in the field, however, there is little surprise.
The increase, they say, is down to a number of factors such as increased awareness, more sophisticated diagnosis and a significant widening of assessment boundaries for autism. Asperger’s syndrome, for example, was removed as a diagnosis in 2013 and has been integrated into a much broader diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Other jurisdictions are recording increases on a similar scale. There is no epidemic; we are simply better at spotting autism and related conditions.
Where once there was a stigma around conditions such as autism, now there is a recognition that early diagnosis is key to accessing supports and therapeutic services. The fact that a diagnosis unlocks access to services means professionals may also be more likely to assess children as autistic for those on the borderline of clinical criteria.
If there is surprise at the figures, it appears to be among authorities tasked with planning for educational and health services for the growing number of children with additional needs. The State has a shameful record in this area. As recently as the late 1990s, the Department of Education argued in court that some children with complex needs were “ineducable”. There were attempts to keep families in the dark over their entitlements. Thanks chiefly to parent-led campaigns and legal actions, that has changed.
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Successive governments have been playing catch-up over the years: the number of special classes for children in mainstream schools has increased from 300 to more than 3,000 since 2010, while about 30 per cent of the education budget now goes towards special education. These are welcome steps in the right direction, but they are nowhere near enough. Unacceptable numbers of children are still going without appropriate school places. There are scandalous waiting lists for assessments of need, as well as access to vital therapies which can improve children’s lives.
The last government’s programme pledged to ensure “each child with a special educational need has an appropriate school place, in line with their constitutional right”. It fell well short of this commitment. The latest Programme for Government pledges to ensure that our “education system is fully inclusive of every student”. If it is to achieve this, funding is just part of the answer; it will require political will and a whole-of-government response to improve planning and delivery of vital services. We have made some progress, but too many children continue to fall through the cracks and have their rights violated.
