Forty - Funding? Don't talk to ME about funding!

On Friday I received a call from my Cherub's school, telling me that he had passed a language assessment with flying colours (a score of 93, whatever that means, 93rd percentile or 93/100 or whatever).  How good is that?  Awesome, I would say.

Unfortunately, in our situation, this rate of success is actually a 'failure', as it means that he no longer qualifies for autism specific funding, and his position at his specialist school is technically under threat.

You see, the criteria for autism specific funding (or more specifically Autism Spectrum Disorder funding) now involves THREE criteria, and you have to meet ALL THREE to qualify for funding.  You need to have a diagnosis of autism (which he has), you need to score less than 70 on the language test (which he didn't) and you need a psych assessment to say that you have problems (which he didn't even undertake, because once you don't meet one criteria, there's no point moving through the process).

My Cherub has attended his autism specialist school for the past seven years, because....der....he is autistic.  Granted, he is high functioning, but believe you me, the fact that he has good language skills has made very little difference to his emotional and social levels, which are very much behind his peers.  Nor has it made a difference to the fact that he still, at nearly twelve years old, hangs on to a poop for as long as possible because he has such sensory issues that he hates the sensation of doing a poop and won't until he really really has to.  It doesn't make a difference to his temper tantrums, or his inability to process emotions (and understand his own).  It doesn't stop him from not liking to have to wait for something (in fact, as you have seen in previous posts, his high level of language development actually makes this stiatuion worse because he can verbalise how he's feeling, but in totally inappropriate ways!).  His writing skills are still that of a prep, possibly if I am gracious we may now be reaching a grade one level.  He gets his letters around the wrong way, he is only just beginning to be able to write his letters the same size, and the words still have capitals all the way through because these are easier for him to form.

And the myriad of other issues he has - dislike of noise, dislike of crowds, crippling fear of the unknown, crippling anxiety, a tendency towards depression etc etc etc.  Those of you who know him will know what I mean.

Do not tell me that he doesn't qualify for autism funding.  Please, do not tell me this.

But, guess what?  He doesn't.  I have now read the document produced by the DEECD which states the different funding criteria and he doesn't meet all three, so he doesn't qualify under the autism criteria.

So, I get the phone call from the school to assure me not to worry, they have a strategy that they have had to use in the past to enable students to stay at the school and not lose their place.  THEY realise he cannot leave the school, but of course he needs the funding for his place.

So, from now on, my child is going to be funded because of his Severe Behavioural Challenges.

Are you F#$%^&g kidding me?

I agree, Cherub does have Severe Behavioural Challenges, but....again I say 'Der'...he's autistic, this is where they come from.  Why can't they have a level of funding for high functioning autistic kids?  Better still, why can't they just acknowledge that you don't get 'better' or 'cured', and if you've been deemed to be best served in a specialist setting, then quite frankly, by the time you get to year 7 and haven't been moved into mainstream, well, maybe this is because you're not quite up to it because your autism gets in the way, and so you get funding to be able to stay there and get the education that you deserve and can achieve to your best ability.

But now, for the rest of his school life, he will only receive funding because, on paper, he has Severe Behavioural Challenges.  My kind hearted good little boy, who doesn't hurt animals, doesn't draw on walls, doesn't wag school, but does fly off the handle when he gets confused and frightened, will from now on be pegged into that small but dreadfully nasty hole.

I understand that this is not the school's fault - in fact I am grateful that they know of another way to obtain funding for my Cherub.  Otherwise, he would literally be kicked out of his safe environment and thrown into mainstream, where he STILL wouldn't meet the criteria and wouldn't be given any funding for any support.

This is ridiculous.  He has his diagnosis, he has attended the specialist setting for all of his school life, and it is blatantly obvious to all and sundry that he would never EVER cope in a mainstream setting.  If I wasn't so angry over this, I would be spending my days crying and wondering how Cherub is ever going to get through life when even his autism is no longer acknowledged as 'real' in terms of funding and educational support as he gets older.  This is utter bullshit.

I am, of course, thinking on an intellectual level that funding is funding, and at least he is going to be able to stay at his current school.  This is the most important thing.  But I am soooooo crapped off that the only way he can get that funding is to, at least on paper, imply that the funding is needed because he is a challenging student because of his behaviour, ignoring the medical reason for that.

I will be writing a letter to the Minister for Education.  But for now I ask that you share this post with everyone you know so that they are aware of this injustice for kids on the ASD spectrum and their families.