“He tried to escape school and succeeded on a few occasions.” When the support that Amy Barnes’ 12-year-old autistic son Theo was legally entitled to didn’t arrive it plunged him into a crisis that saw him bullied, assaulted and missing half a year of school.
He is one example of a much wider problem of school absence that experts blame on a special needs system in England’s schools they describe as “broken”.
New statistics, shared exclusively with i, reveal that that the number of “severely” absent autistic pupils has soared by 35 per cent in a single year.
The analysis by the charity Ambitious about Autism looked at the latest available Department for Education (DfE) data and uncovered an increase in the number of autistic pupils who were “severely absent” from 6,218 in 2021/22 to 8,415 in 2022/23
This means they miss more than half of the school year, like Theo.
The number of autistic pupils “persistently” absent has also risen by 9 per cent in one academic year, from 51,268 in 2021/22 to 55,929 in 2022/23.
These young people miss more than 10 per cent of their school year, and the problem is now so bad that around a quarter of autistic pupils in schools are persistently absent.
‘The special needs system is broken’
Former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield told i that the 35 per cent spike is an “alarming trend” that needs to be understood by schools and policymakers.
She suggested that the huge staffing and funding pressure faced by schools means there is less capacity for personalised support so fewer children attend.
“The SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] system has been stretched to its limit and – for many children – is broken,” Ms Longfield said. “We can see that in attendance, we can see that in exclusions and we can see that in children that have been off-rolled.”
Ms Barnes said things “started to go badly wrong” for Theo in secondary school. “The support that had been agreed which the school had to provide by law didn’t materialise and there was a complete lack of understanding from the staff,” she said.
“For the first time, Theo falls below target for his grades and his personality changed. He was continuously bullied – physically and verbally assaulted daily – and the school was aware of this.
“He tried to escape school and succeeded on a few occasions,” said Ms Barnes, who lives in Hampshire and works as as a science technician in a secondary school.
“By the time he got to the beginning of the second year, we couldn’t get him to go to school. He then spent half a year out of school.”
‘Set up to fail’
Ms Barnes said her son was “set up to fail” with class sizes of 30 and teachers who lacked “training and understanding”. He is now much happier attending a special school after a period of “stressful negotiation” with the council, she added.
Ambitious about Autism says funding problems leading to cuts in the number of teaching assistants is one factor behind children struggling in mainstream schools. The charity’s chief executive Jolanta Lasota said the absence figures revealed by its analysis showed that education is a “basic right routinely denied to autistic pupils”.
“Thousands have been absent from the classroom for over half the school year – making them much more likely to fall out of school altogether,” she told i.
“Many of these problems stem from a lack of support at school – leaving autistic children unable to understand lessons, bullied in the playground, or both. Once that goes on for long enough a child can no longer cope.
“We won’t solve the school attendance crisis until we get support for autistic pupils right. To do this we need to introduce autism training for all education staff and fund SEND support properly.”
Private schools are claiming that things could get worse and that Labour’s plan to tax private school fees risks a “catastrophe” flooding the state sector with pupils with special educational needs who will come with requests for expensive support.
Ms Longfield, the founder of the Centre for Young Lives, said that the absence statistics revealed systemic issues that required urgent attention.
“There are clear solutions but it needs political will and intent,” she said. “I think we’ve seen indications of that in the first instance [from Labour]. But it needs to become centre stage in terms of school policy.
“It’s a situation that is only going to get more severe until we allow schools to have the additional resource,” Ms Longfield added, explaining that this includes sufficient staffing levels and a joined-up approach with local services.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the attendance figures were a “real concern” and called for more investment from the Department for Education (DfE) to address the problem.
He said: “Schools put a great deal of effort into encouraging attendance and working with families to remove barriers where possible.
“There is growing anxiety about attending school among some young people and it’s important that schools continue to work alongside children and families to help ensure that autistic pupils do not miss out on opportunities or learning and are able to progress alongside their peers.
“Teaching assistants play a really valuable role in the education system and their role in supporting teachers is particularly important to pupils who require additional help. However, school budgets are tight and it can be difficult to afford the costs of paying for teaching assistants and other staff who provide more specialist support.”
A government spokesperson said: “These shocking figures show that far too often our education system does not meet the needs of children with special educational needs, leaving them without the opportunity to thrive.
“There can be no quick fixes to these systemic challenges, but we are determined to rebuild parents’ trust in mainstream education where that is the best place for their child.
“We have already started with our curriculum and assessment review, which will put high and rising standards and inclusion for children with SEND at the heart of what schools do, and our ‘support-first’ approach to attendance encourages schools to work alongside parents to ensure their child attends school.”