Thousands of children with autism across England are missing significant amounts of their schooling, according to the latest government figures. The data show that a third of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) missed at least 10% of their education over the course of the year, a level of absence that campaigners say points to a system struggling to keep some of its most vulnerable pupils in the classroom. The charity Ambitious About Autism has now called for more to be done to stop young people falling out of education altogether.
The scale of the problem is especially stark in the West Midlands. Last year, 30% of children with special educational needs in the region were absent from their education, amounting to around 49,000 children. By comparison, 16% of pupils without such needs were absent, a figure that covered roughly 109,000 children. According to the figures highlighted in the BBC News report, the gap between the two groups is not closing but widening, leaving SEND pupils increasingly cut off from the classroom.
Behind the statistics are families who describe a daily struggle to get their children through the school gates. In one case featured in the report, a teenage girl who is autistic and becomes unable to speak when she is anxious found the school environment so overwhelming that it affected both her physical and mental wellbeing. Her mother described nightly distress before school days, with complaints of feeling sick, headaches and tears, until the family eventually withdrew her from school at the age of 14.
The same family said they were left without support once their daughter stopped attending. They did not feel confident about educating her at home, and although they did not contact the council themselves, they had expected the local authority to make contact when the absences began. No one, the mother said, ever came to ask where her daughter was. The case underlines concerns that children can disappear from the school system without anyone following up.
Walsall Council, named in connection with the case, did not respond to the specific allegations about its duty of care, but said in a statement that it takes its statutory duties on school attendance seriously and works closely with schools, families and partner agencies to support children and young people to access education. Walsall also has the highest school absence rate for SEND pupils anywhere in the West Midlands, at 32%, underlining the depth of the challenge in the area.
Ministers have pledged new money in response to the pressures on the system. The government has committed to spending £4 billion over the next three years to make every school more inclusive for SEND pupils. At the same time, officials have said the current model is unaffordable, and from 2035 only children with the most complex needs will qualify for education, health and care plans, the legal documents that set out the support a child is entitled to receive.
For many parents, however, the debate is not only about funding but about whether mainstream schooling can ever fit their children. At a support group in Walsall, parents told the BBC they were unconvinced that the standard classroom is the answer, arguing that every child is an individual and that a rigid school system leaves no place for those who do not fit the mould. Some warned that piling responsibility back onto schools risks adding more pressure on children, families and teachers alike, with one parent saying bluntly that they did not believe mainstream schools were suitable for many autistic young people.