Today, January 24, is the International Day of Education and, for this reason, Autism Spain remembers that, according to official data (IMSERSO, INE, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Departments of Education of the Autonomous Communities...), Of the more than 200,000 students with specific educational support needs, nearly 40,000 have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) , a figure that could be higher if we take into account the significant deficiencies that the detection and diagnosis systems have in Spain.

Taking into account these data, as well as the sociodemographic registry that Autismo España is carrying out (and which currently has an analyzed sample of 2,116 people with ASD), the Confederation has noted a considerable increase in school students with ASD identified in recent years. five years (of more than 118% between the 2011-12 and 2017-2018 academic years), as well as significant dropout rates of these students at the end of Secondary Education, compared to the continuity rates of the rest of the students enrolled in non-education. university.

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For all these reasons, at Autismo España we advocate to guarantee the right to education of students with ASD, making the existing educational offer more flexible and innovating, so that it responds to individual needs and maximizes educational success, personal development and social inclusion. , and guaranteeing the specialized support that each person needs based on their specific needs.

In this sense we also want to highlight that, as stated in the Research Report related to Spain under article 6 of the Optional Protocol , “ it was often misinterpreted, including in official statistics that the incorporation of students with disabilities into ordinary centers, but “without the required reasonable accommodations, it constituted inclusive education.”

Article extracted from Autismo.org (click here to access the source)

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