Published on 12, July, 2020
Our 15 year old daughter has had a diagnosis of autism for a year following several years of issues, including school refusal.
After the first few days of absence, the school has started marking her absence as "unauthorised", even though nothing had changed. As a result, we are now in the council led disciplinary route (even though they don't call it that) with threats of fines etc, In our first meeting, the EWO explicitly stated that autism is not an excuse for non-attendance.
Is there any point in pushing back on her absence being classed as "unauthorised". From what I understand, unauthorised means the school believes there are no valid reasons for her absence. The school has otherwise been understanding but don't know if it would be a waste of breath pushing back on their absence classification (as that would remove the threat of fine and jail).
Help!
Many thanks all for your help and comments. We had the meeting with the council and the school. It turns out that the medical evidence (which for our daughter was anxiety as a result of her autism) they insists on only last 6 months has to be renewed. They didn't tell us this (not even when it has expired) so now have to try and get her "recertified " that her her anxiety is a reason for her not to attend. Frustrating and cause of huge amount of unnecessary stress but have suggested to school that (a) they let parents know in advance when prolonged absence will change from authorised to unauthorised and (b) they let parents know if advance when the medical evidence is about to "expire".
Thanks again all.
'Autism' No, just like work sorry i can't come in today i'm autistic. I doesn't hold up does it? But if we add related XXX to the statement then absolutley.
Sorry i'm off today with Autism realted:
stress
anxiety
fatigue (burnout as someone put)
post meltdown (its been described as coming out of an epileptic fit you just want to sleep)
There could be many issues around the schools failure to modify noise, light, crowding etc. (sensory overload)
If someone told me it wasn't an excuse i'd have hit the roof.
We have tended to say our son is too anxious today to attend and that has been accepted.
I see Martin mentioned autistic burnout. I was pleased recently on returning to work after being too exhausted to function that my boss was happy to use the phrase autistic exhaustion in the description of the reason.
I wonder if it would be more accepted to use a specific phrase in relation to the reason which is a result of being autistic.
I do not know if anyone has managed to convince a school that autism is reasonable grounds for absences. Though it seems entirely reasonable that some parents have done so. Unfortunately, with league tables and those appalling Ofsted inspections, school leaders have become paranoid about pupils missing any time whatsoever for any reason. This has been reinforced by governments giving schools the power to fine parents, this power has undoubtedly been abused quite frequently. Once upon a time teachers were considered to be in loco parentis, nowadays it seems to be the opposite parents are increasingly in locum paedagogis. Most schools, local authorities, GPs etc. are woefully uneducated concerning autism. They do not realise that short arranged school absences when a child is feeling overwhelmed can prevent much longer absences if the overwhelm transitions into full-blown autistic burnout. This might be of interest: www.autism.org.uk/.../parents
Many thanks for the reply and link to the interesting and useful paper as well as the suggestion.
I wonder if d be interest to know if any (UK or specifically English-based) parents have been able to convince a school that school refusal due to autism should be considered authorised absence. Definition doesn't seem to depend on diagnosis just "belief" of whoever your dealing with.
Given that a thing called autistic burnout is recognised (see the biomedical research paper here:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367126701_Confirming_the_nature_of_autistic_burnout) and has been characterised as: "Autistic burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate supports. It is characterised by pervasive, long-term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus", whoever told you that autism is not a valid reason for missing school, in all circumstances, is ill informed at best. This sounds like a case of discrimination on the grounds of disability. Imagine anyone saying the same about a chronic physical condition, such as cystic fibrosis. It would not happen and if it did there would be an outcry. However, when it is a case of chronic neurodevelopmental conditions morons can dismiss people with these conditions, as if such conditions had no deleterious impact on how people function. I would formally complain to any organisation involved, and ask for your child to be assessed by a third party.