Mr. Adam Harris:

I thank the committee for its courtesy in inviting me today. There was an emergency on the previous occasion I was to be here and I appreciate the committee making the invitation available to me.

Reduced timetables are a daily reality for many vulnerable students and yet there has been a certain "do not ask, do not tell" culture, with devastating consequences for young people of various minority groups, and autistic students, and I thank the committee for looking at this issue.

AsIAm is Ireland's national autism charity. We undertake a range of activities with the aim of bringing about an autism-friendly Ireland. In recent years, there has been a number of significant advancements in the education system, with 86% of autistic students now attending mainstream school. This is, of course, to be welcomed, but permission to enter a building is not, in and of itself, inclusion. It is easy for us to pat ourselves on the back and think we are doing a great job without scrutinising the lived experiences of many young autistic people in the education system, particularly those who are out of school or on reduced timetables.

On a day-to-day basis, our young people adapt to a way of communicating, thinking and doing which is not their own. From a young age, experiences such as getting the bus, going to the supermarket or sitting in a classroom require problem solving, adaptation and a large degree of stress and anxiety. The principle of accessibility is part of both national and international law, yet this is far from a universal reality within the education system. Many autistic students are asked to communicate with those who are not trained to share in that communication, sit in environments that cause severe overload and suffering, participate in learning and social activities that are not clear or easy to understand, and be educated alongside students and staff with often little or no knowledge or empathy of their experiences. This is simply too big of an ask for many of our young people. While they are doing their upmost to adapt, the system seems unable or unwilling to meet in the middle and provide an accessible experience.

For a long time, AsIAm has been contacted by parents whose children are not able to attend school. In some instances, the correct provision, be it an autism class or a special school, is unavailable or there are not enough resources to support the child in school. In other instances, the school is not operating an inclusive practise in respect of autism, leading to anxiety, sensory overload and social isolation. Perhaps, most disturbing, there are children whose autistic behaviours are treated as matters of discipline in the same school policy designed for dealing with students who engage in such activities as smoking behind the shed.

We discovered over time that the issue of children being out of school was not straightforward. Often a parent could not answer "Yes" or "No" to the question, "Does your child go to school?" Such children may attend irregularly, with their levels of anxiety leading to long periods out; they may have insufficient support in a school; at times, a parent may have decided to insist on a reduced hours timetable; or they may simply not have a place to go to school at all.

What struck us throughout the process was the apparent indifference of the Department of Education and Skills to this issue. We do not know how many autistic students are out of school or, indeed, how many are on reduced timetables. The Department does not know because it has not asked and, as a result, schools have been left to their own devices on this issue.

As a result, we wanted to demonstrate that there was a genuine problem. We conducted a survey of the autism community in relation to absence from school and published our report "Invisible Children" during world autism month in April. The aim of this report was not to establish a definitive solution to the problem – this is a much bigger piece of work with no single answer - but rather to make the case for a need to look at this issue.

A significant cohort of our respondents, 17%, were students who were on reduced timetables. Some of these students were as young as four or five. In some instances, parents who did not wish to have a reduced timetable were threatened with a suspension or expulsion process should they not consent. In many instances, reduced timetables were a symptom of a lack of resources and knowledge.

I will make specific recommendations ,which AsIAm feels could assist this cohort of students. We call on the Department of Education and Skills to recognise that reduced timetables, while unacceptable, are happening. We do not feel a school ever has a right to place a student on a reduced timetable without a parent's consent. Equally, we strongly believe that schools should be given additional resources for the students who need it most. We understand that for some autistic students a reduced timetable works well and is the will of the parent. As a result, we believe there should be national guidelines on the practice and a keyholder identified who can sanction reduced hours. We believe that boards of management should have to record all instances of reduced timetables. We feel schools need to be provided with more support and more training to better support students on the spectrum, and that outside agencies, such as the HSE and Tusla, have an important role to play.

I thank the committee for its time and look forward to the members' questions.