Too many children with developmental issues were "falling through the cracks" in the education system, a Tauranga mother says. Photo / Getty Images
Too many children with developmental issues were "falling through the cracks" in the education system, a Tauranga mother says. Photo / Getty Images
Bay of Plenty children with developmental issues are being left "damaged" by the education system - with one parent saying there was "not a lot of hope" for them.
Of about 1500 Bay of Plenty families with children with developmental issues, about 80 per cent have issues with the educationsystem, an advocate says.
Some parents even said they felt "forced" to move their children into homeschooling as the mainstream system could not cater to their needs.
Altogether Autism regional co-ordinator Breanna Turner dealt with about 1500 families with children with developmental issues in the Bay of Plenty. Photo / Andrew Warner
However, the Ministry of Education says although wait times for early intervention of children who need learning support has been "unacceptably high" - the time had reduced by almost a third in the Bay of Plenty since 2019.
Tauranga mother Ash Highnam said too many children were "falling through the cracks" in the education system and it had been "a battle from the word go" since her autistic daughter started school.
She said she knew her daughter Tara was autistic by the time she was 18 months old but she was not diagnosed until five years later.
She had experienced the impact wait times for support could have on a child with developmental issues, including her now nine-year-old, she said.
"It has always been a fight. There is not a lot of hope for children with developmental issues in mainstream schools.
"So many parents are forced to withdraw their children and go into homeschooling as their needs are not catered too."
Her daughter was still in mainstream school but she said her attendance was "really bad" as she struggled with the lack of support and being bullied by other children.
"Life is really hard for her."
She said it was her view her daughter had been "damaged by the system" and her anxiety levels had increased over the years.
Tauranga mother Ash Highnam and her daughter Tara, 9. Photo / Supplied
"She has bad meltdowns before school as she never wants to go. It's hard seeing her so hurt and upset."
She said her daughter was learning at a Year One level, while the other children in her class were at Year Five level.
"She just doesn't want to feel like she is different. Support would be everything to her."
Rotorua mother Fran Fitzell has three children and one grandchild who all have developmental issues - primarily autism - and said she was "forced" to homeschool as the education system was not, in her opinion, providing adequate care.
In her view, teachers were "not trained and don't have the time" to identify issues and create individualised plans that were crucial for educating children with developmental issues.
She said her teenage children had all suffered severe bullying due to lack of understanding by students and teachers at school.
She believed getting support for these children as soon as they were diagnosed was vital.
"If children need help, they need it straight away and need to continue getting it until they don't need it anymore."
She said the system was "not good enough" with too many children with developmental issues "falling to the wayside" and wait times were still too long.
Altogether Autism regional co-ordinator Breanna Turner dealt with about 1500 families with children with developmental issues in the Bay of Plenty. Photo / Andrew Warner
Altogether Autism regional co-ordinator for parent-to-parent Breanna Turner said she dealt with about 1500 families with children with developmental issues in the Bay of Plenty and about 80 per cent of them had issues within the education system.
She said by the time a family was requesting educational help, the child was already "not coping" and being put on waitlist after waitlist could send them into crisis mode.
Crisis situations could see these children shut down, act out or even self-harm.
Parents were finding themselves in continuous battles with schools over adequate care until eventually it was recommended to homeschool as the school could "not provide" for the child, she said.
"Our education system is not quite catering for them."
Teacher training college allowed workshops on neurodiverse children to be optional, she said, and only recently she had got a call from a new local teacher with five pupils with developmental issues with no idea how to handle it.
"We aren't really setting our trainee teachers up for success."
Chief executive of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand Lesley Hoskin said teaching was a "challenging career" with "high expectations of teachers to meet the needs of all learners, including those with neurodiverse needs".
She said the Initial Teacher Education programmes were overhauled in 2019 and were being redesigned to reflect new requirements, including identifying and responding appropriately to learners with diverse and additional learning needs.
"Graduates from some of the new programmes will be in schools from the start of this year and by 2025 onwards all graduates will be from programmes approved under the new requirements."
The Ministry of Education's deputy secretary for sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said the wait time for early intervention for children who may need learning support had reduced in the Bay of Plenty.
As of January 31, a Bay of Plenty and Waiariki child has to wait 83 days on average for early intervention service.
The Ministry of Education's deputy secretary for sector enablement and support Katrina Casey. Photo / File
In 2019, children with communications difficulties, development delays, or disabilities were waiting longer for specialist support to help them learn and participate at home or in early childhood education.
That year the Bay of Plenty ranked as the third-worst in the country for early intervention for children with developmental issues or disabilities with the average wait time sitting at 123 days.
And although the number has dropped dramatically, the region still sits just above the national average of 82 days.
"We know the wait times have been unacceptably high for early intervention for children who may need support, and it has been a priority of ours to significantly reduce them.
"While we cannot comment on individual cases, we provide a range of services and support for akonga with the highest level of need."
Casey said increased collaboration and process improvements had been major factors in reducing the waiting times for learning support services in the region.
The ministry had facilitated a "tiered support model" with three sites in Tauranga, Whakatāne and Taupō selected as pilots for it.
She said they also worked with clusters of schools and early childhood centres, Resource Teachers Learning and Behaviour, local iwi, DHBs, Oranga Tamariki and non-governmental organisations.
