Schools’ Survey – Exclusion and Reduced Hours for Children with ADHD
Almost one third of parents surveyed have experienced their ADHD child being excluded from school or given shorter hours
We conducted a survey in July this year to better understand the impact of school exclusion and reduced hours for Irish children with ADHD throughout the country and the results showed that a staggering 29% of respondents had experienced their ADHD child being excluded from school or given shorter hours.
Of all the respondents, over 70 per cent of children were primary school-going and half of those surveyed did not feel that their child’s school took all reasonable alternative actions before excluding their child.
School exclusions and shorter hours often mean that the child falls behind on their school work and is left feeling excluded from the rest of the class socially.
“For our son, the first year of school was a nightmare, it basically didn’t happen for him, I would have to drop him later (in the morning) and pick him up at 12pm, just at lunch time when the children were going out (and) that’s when it really felt like a punishment for him.”, said one respondent.
While some schools are very aware of the symptoms of ADHD and are familiar with how to manage those symptoms working closely with the child’s parents, unfortunately that is not commonplace. Many schools are not as familiar and educated in how to recognise and manage the symptoms of ADHD and as a result, there is little provision made for an ADHD child.
“My son chatted a lot in class but didn’t cause any other trouble for his school. None of the teachers had a clue, even the nicest ones. When I brought the (ADHD) diagnosis report in to them they showed me the locked filing cabinet it would be kept in, so no one would know…”
ADHD Ireland are calling on the Department of Education to provide greater funding for supports for parents and education, support and training for teachers in this field.
This survey was conducted online and had 224 responses in total.
