Thousands of autistic children ‘illegally excluded from schools’

Youngsters with the condition are being asked to stay at home, miss out on school trips and activities and to come to lessons part-time, according to a report by the Ambitious about Autism charity.

It warns that many children with autism are missing out on education because schools do not have the knowledge and skills to support them.

The report is based on surveys of over 500 families and 1,000 school staff as well as information gathered from local councils.

It found that four in 10 children with autism have been informally excluded from school temporarily – an illegal practice.

Ambitious about Autism said that as around 70,785 children have the condition, this could equate to more than 28,000 illegal exclusions.

Around a fifth (20 per cent) of the parents questioned said that their child with autism had been formally excluded in the last year, while more than half said that they have kept their son or daughter out of school because they were concerned that the school could not provide the right support.

The report also found that two fifths (40 per cent) of parents had been asked to collect their child at an unscheduled time, while three in 10 (30 per cent) said they had been asked by a school to keep their child at home.

It calls for statutory guidance clarifying that schools must tell their local council of any part-time schooling arrangements for children with special educational needs, and their plans to help a child to get back into full-time education.

The charity suggests that schools may be resorting to informal exclusions, which it said can also mean refusing to allow youngsters to take part in social activities or school trips, because they are unable to support youngsters with autism.

While schools do have a legal right to formally exclude a child, this should only be done as a last resort, it argues, and plans should be put in place to ensure the pupil is still getting an education.

The report notes that while over seven in 10 (71 per cent) of autistic children are in mainstream schools, around 60 per cent of teachers in England say they do not feel they have had enough training to teach pupils with the condition.