Autistic child & schools in southern Perth

[Murphys]

Hi. I'd be most grateful for any help on this....

 

Our family is contemplating a move to WA from UK. We have two girls. Our youngest has autism, and will be of school going age when we get there. We want her to go to a mainstream school, with support. There will be no immigration issues, as she is a citizen.

 

I've been offered a decent job in Port Kennedy, but where we live will depend on finding the right school, where both are girls can go. I'm happy to drive for a half an hour or so to work.

 

Help! This is one of the most important factors to consider and will determine where to or even if we manage it!

[Rossmoyne]

Hi Murphys

 

Can I suggest that you look at the Department of Education's website and their "Schools Online" data base. http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsonline/home.do All state schools in WA are listed here and there are various search functions so you are able to search areas for schools.

 

Hopefully someone will come along with more specific knowledge of schools in the area to help you.

[Bob1]

As you know autism is a spectrum disorder and the ed dept take this into account when applying funding. If she is bright and more "Aspergers' then there is a chance that she'll receive no funding although in Year 1/Pre primary there is always an extra TA floating about. There will be schools that have units attached and even if you want to go mainstream it might be an idea to go for one of those as the teacher in the unit will have more expertise than the main class - and it can be somewhere she can go to 'chill'. Are you Catholic by any chance as the Catholic schools are a bit better at meeting the needs, are more likely to have a learning support teacher who can offer support/advice and more likely to get funding - they do it more on need than IQ (which the ed dept seem hung up on). They also have special ed consultants who visit the schools (so do ed dept but thinner on the ground).