The School-to-Prison Pipeline
Here at ADHD LIBERTY WORLDWIDE we are angry that the School-to-Prison pipeline is primarily full of kids with ADHD and other neurodiverse conditions
And we know how to stop it!
Research has established a high percentage of people in prison were excluded from school. Some temporarily excluded and some permanently excluded. The last official figure was 88%. These adults reported they had been labelled as ‘troublemakers’ at school. And were ‘poor learners’
We know why that is!
Because children are not screened for ADHD, autism or any of the co-existing learning difficulties at school, this directly leads to boys and girls struggling in classrooms.
Kids with unidentified dyslexia probably struggle most. But also kids with unidentified dyscalculia and dysgraphia will find some lessons completely incomprehensible.
Unidentified ADHD will lead to kids in classes struggling with focus and concentration, hyperactivity, low boredom threshold, becoming distracted and distracting others, struggling to interpret instructions and directions from teachers, not paying attention, daydreaming, becoming the clown of the class when they don’t know what they are doing, being told off for doodling, rocking on their chair, picking and unravelling their school jumper and anything else they can do to relieve the boredom and use up their hyperactivity.
These kids in the classroom will also be impulsively shouting out answers before putting their hand up, will think they know best as they don’t like authority so often clash with teachers and may be disorganised and late when it comes to bringing in homework, PE kits and ingredients for cookery classes. They will most often be told off for their bad attitude which they don’t even realise they have.
It’s not hard to see how the ADHD kids are the ones evicted from lessons, find themselves sanctioned, punished and excluded.
So how do we change this? It is so very simple.
ADHD, autism and all neurodiversity screening should be part of each new school year before learning starts. This makes complete sense. A teacher needs to find out what struggles each student is likely to have before they can teach them successfully surely?
Screeners for all these conditions cost nothing. So ignore people who use funding as the reason for screening not happening! This is not the huge expensive task people make it out to be.
At ADHD LIBERTY WORLDWIDE our focus is on ADHD but even we have a 30 question screener for ADHD, autism and the four main learning disabilities connected to ADHD. We are not alone. We know there are many other screeners out there identifying ADHD and dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia.
So why aren't we routinely screening children for ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and as many of the other ND conditions as we can manage?
Because mostly those working in Education have no idea how prevalent these conditions are. That’s not just Teachers and Head Teachers. That is at Government level.
And some think kids can’t possibly have ADHD
~ Because they are girls
~ Because they are intelligent and get good grades
~ Because they sit still
~ Because they are from a middle-class family
WRONG! ADHD CROSSES ALL AGES, GENDERS, RACES, CULTURES, NATIONALITIES AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.
To keep ADHD kids away from the criminal justice system, which starts with them being expelled from school, only this needs to happen ~
Teacher training needs to include all neurodiversity. How to spot it and how to work with it. Which takes at least a module of its own, not a morning
At the beginning of each school year, either an online or paper screener, both are available, to be used in each class to flag up any children who might have any of these conditions
Parents to be informed of the results so they can put the child on the path to the right diagnosis, after which they will receive the necessary support to achieve their potential educationally
School SENCO to be kept informed and to liaise with parents to ensure the child gets the right diagnosis, possibly medication, and definitely support
And that’s it. Not hard is it? Not rocket science? This and this alone will reduce and we hope eventually eradicate the School-to-Prison pipeline.