Expelled autistic boy still out of school seven weeks later

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By John Gerritsen for RNZ

An autistic boy who was expelled from school despite appealing to the Children's Commissioner has now been out of school for seven weeks.

The boy's mother told RNZ the process of finding schools for children who had been excluded or expelled took too long.

Her 13-year-old son was stood down from school seven weeks ago following a fight and the school's board decided to exclude him five weeks ago, just before the start of the April school holidays.

The woman said she knew from past experience it could take months to find a replacement school and the wait was frustrating.

"I have a son that desperately wants to go to school. He wants to be engaging with others and he can't because there's nowhere for him to go."

The woman said the Ministry of Education (MOE) had already suggested one potential school but it was too far away to be practical and she was hoping it would come back to her with more options today.

She expected the MOE would have to order a school to enrol her son and the long wait was hard for him.

"He's bored. He is absolutely bored. He is 13 and he just wants to be at school," she said.

MOE spokeswoman Katrina Casey said it had been working with the family to find a new school.

"To date the family have not been comfortable with the schooling options we suggested," Casey said.

"However, we've now identified a school the family think may be a good fit and we have a meeting with the school this week to talk about possible enrolment."

Children's Commissioner involved
Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft took an interest in the case after the boy wrote to him.

There was long-standing concern among parents about the length of time it took to re-enrol children who had been excluded, Becroft said.

In such cases the original school had 10 school days to find a replacement school and if that failed the MOE took over.

"Understandably they don't compel re-enrolment. They try to work behind the scenes for that to happen. I think of all us would a) wish that could happen more quickly and b) that there'd be adequate resources to enable that to take place," Becroft said.

In this case, Becroft did not believe the MOE had been slow.

"I'm satisfied the ministry are treating it as a priority and are working very hard behind the scenes to resolve it. I'm reassured by that. I can't comment further than that about this case."

Schools needed more resources so they could be truly inclusive of all children with special needs, he said.

"It's pretty clear that some schools have made that change or are making it and they genuinely are almost magnet schools, others are finding it tougher."