Education situation for autistcs in China

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In China, autism is classified as a disability. Funding of education services for kids with autism from impoverished families has increased in recent years, and by the end of 2020, the central government aims to financially support 80 percent of children with autism, including those over the age of 7, who did not qualify for financial support before.

But access to education remains an issue, despite new regulations that came into effect on May 1 requiring public schools to develop better services for children with disabilities. There’s no clear pathway or time frame for achieving this goal, and experts have criticized the regulations for stopping short of guaranteeing access to education for children with disabilities.

As one of China’s so-called “children of the stars,” Chaochao tends to have trouble adjusting to the norms and expectations of the world. Children like him are often slower to interpret words and concepts than other kids their age. Some might need support their whole lives, while others can live independently as adults.

Li believed that Chaochao would thrive under the care of someone with patience, dedication, and knowledge of his special needs. She decided to help: In 2010, she took in Chaochao and three other children with autism. She named the school “Lingxing,” meaning “Soul Stars,” and began learning psychology through self-study to better understand autism.

Although public schools are required to maintain a certain quota of children with disabilities, the number is so low that private institutions remain the only option for the majority, explained Jia Meixiang, deputy director of the Beijing Association for Rehabilitation of Autistic Children

According to Jia, more than 1,000 private institutions across the country specialize in educating children with autism, and 90 percent were founded by people with no previous teaching experience, including some parents of children with autism. The institutions rely on tuition fees to survive and are usually under great financial pressure.

“The government has not provided any long-term aid aside from some lump-sum funding projects,” said Fan Shilu, the father of a child with autism and the founder of the Ark Autism Rehabilitation Institute, a private school similar to Li’s.

Tuition fees for these institutions usually range between 3,500 and 5,000 yuan ($500 to $720) per month, but rent and operational costs are high, as most of the schools have a student-teacher ratio of 2-to-1. Fan’s institute, for example, accumulated a deficit of 300,000 yuan last year.

The shortage of trained teachers is another problem. At Lingxing, each educator is responsible for two to three children. The teachers keep records of the children’s behavior and learning progress, as well as tend to all their daily needs. The students — aged 2 to 17 — are divided into groups based on ability, and they spend their days reading, singing, and playing games, which helps them develop their language abilities, social communication skills, and manual dexterity.

When Lingxing was established, most of the educators were nursery school teachers who were later trained and licensed by the local branch of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF). Specialized teachers are hard to come by, as the Ministry of Education does not include training on autism in the curriculum for special education teachers.