'I shouldn't have to educate their school about what autism is': Community attitudes and parent reports of autistic primary and secondary school experiences in Australia.
Sandra Thom-Jones, Chloe S Gordon, Simone Mizzi
PMID 40448591WHAT IT FOUND
Most Australians support school adjustments for autistic students, but parents report these are rarely provided.
While 90% back staff training and peer education, fewer than 1 in 8 schools deliver them. This gap forces parents to constantly advocate, often resulting in school changes and distress.
Key findings
01The general public strongly supports school adjustments, with 92.3% agreeing schools should educate other students to include autistic children and 91.6% supporting professional development for staff.
02In contrast, parents report these supports are largely absent; in 2021, only 16.3% of families said their child's school provided professional development to staff, and 6.6% said students were educated on how to support autistic peers.
03Due to lack of support, 34% of parents reported having to change their child's primary school at least once.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Parent reports are secondhand accounts of the student's experience and may not fully reflect the child's perspective. The surveys were not validated measures, and the 2020 and 2021 parent surveys grouped students differently (by age vs. school stage), limiting direct comparison. Recruitment via advocacy groups and social media may have selected for parents who are already highly engaged or dissatisfied, potentially skewing the experience data. The general population sample was recruited from a probability-based panel, but the parent samples were convenience-based, making it difficult to generalise the parent findings to all Australian families.
Declared interests
The study was supported by non-U.S. government funding. The survey instruments were developed in consultation with the autistic community and the Australian Autism Alliance, with the 2020 survey conducted for the Alliance under the direction of an autistic academic.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that because public opinion supports inclusion, schools are implementing it. The data shows a massive gap between what people think should happen (e.g., staff training, peer education) and what actually happens, with many schools providing none of these supports.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →