Crystal and Corinne

‘Autistic people are amazing if they’re just given the opportunity and the right environment to learn.’

Corinne is mum to seven-year-old Crystal, who is autistic and requires complex supports. Corinne told the Royal Commission that Crystal is very intelligent but has ‘fallen through a very big crack’ in the education system.

Corinne explained that Crystal can’t attend the local state school because of her ‘sensory processing issues’. A mainstream school environment is ‘almost torturous’ for her because she has to ‘move, pace, backwards and forwards’ to be able to ‘listen and take information in’. However because she doesn’t have an intellectual disability, she can’t attend state special schools.

Corinne felt she had little option but to enrol Crystal in a specialist autism school. It is very expensive, the school day is shorter and it is a one-hour drive away. ‘It comes at a great cost to my ability to work because I don’t get left many work hours.’

Therapists tried to help build Crystal’s capacity to catch the bus, but had to stop because it was too traumatising for her.

Corinne is concerned the school has a ‘stagnant approach’ to educating children with autism and is not responsive to concerns or complaints raised by their school community.

‘I feel … the purpose of that school is to turn autistic children into a mainstream product that can fit in, you know, fit in to this mould, this mainstream mould, which I find is really tragic, because all it is teaching them to do is to mask, or to pretend to be, neurotypical.’

Corinne is considering homeschooling Crystal. She said other families are even considering building their own specialised schools, where their children can learn in a manner that celebrates their styles of learning, instead of attempting to change them.

Corinne said the education department doesn’t understand why Crystal cannot go into mainstream schooling. She says their inclusive education policy is rigid and doesn’t work. ‘There is more to inclusion than just sitting in a room.’ Corinne wonders how families who can’t afford exorbitant school fees educate their children.

Getting Crystal to school has recently become more difficult. She is ‘very rigid’ in how she thinks about transport and will only drive in one car. Corinne was able to use Crystal’s NDIS funding to pay a support worker to take her to and from school in the family car. ‘It opened up a great opportunity for me to work … it was really great for my mental health … great for the family,’ Corinne said.

However, Crystal’s NDIS funding for the next 12 months has been cut. The NDIA argues the education department should pay transport costs. The department believes it is Corinne’s ‘parental responsibility’ and ‘beyond their scope’. If Crystal’s disability was physical, a special taxi would be funded. Corinne said it’s wrong Crystal’s ‘type of disability is a disadvantage’.

Corinne is currently appealing the decrease in Crystal’s NDIS funding and is managing this process herself, further straining her ability to work. If successful, the appeal will ensure another 12-month plan which, at the end, she worries may be followed by another mediocre plan. She says this ‘bureaucratic nightmare’ impacts the mental health of the whole family.

Corinne would like society to accept people with autism and stop asking them to modify their behaviours.

‘I feel that a lot of money could be saved by putting that money into community awareness around what autism is, what it looks like and just simply radically accepting autism, as opposed to asking autistic people to modify themselves to fit in to a mainstream community.’