Resource Launch: Understanding School Can't: A guide for parents and carers

School Can't Australia is thrilled to launch a mini book which will be available online for free and to order in hard copy. This booklet contains information that parents and carers who have walked this road before suggest is essential to those who are new to this journey.

To celebrate the launch Leisa Riechelt, host and producer of School Can't Experience Podcast will host a lived experience panel discussing the things they wish they had known earlier, or learned the hard way, and other tidbits of lived experience advice.

Meet our four panelists:

Mark (he/him) is a father of an 11 year old (code named Bluey) who has been on the School Can't journey since Bluey's first day of school. He shares that "After trials, tribulations and attempts at different approaches, we collectively made the decision to homeschool. This has been our situation for 12 months now and the most important thing I can offer to carers of other School Can't children is to find a solution that works for your individual circumstances and family".

Yani (they/them) and Simone (she/her) began their School Can't journey at daycare and kindergarten, and it was sustained throughout their relationship with mainstream education. They spent a number of years outside the school system, until Yani engaged with TAFE, aged 17. Yani is thriving and Simone is doing her best to catch up after a long journey.

Diana (she/her) says: "In hindsight, James was our second School Can't child, although sadly we treated the first child as Won't not Can't. James' struggles first showed up in his Kindy year but we got back on track in a wonderful small primary school. It really kicked in hard in Year 8 in the middle of COVID. Long story short, we moved to Distance Education and James has now successfully completed his first year of Uni (part-time work load). Along this journey, he was diagnosed with autism eventually - really only because of the peer support and sharing in the School Can't community and me finally recognising the PDA profile. Life continues after school and autism is life long so it's now about how James does life a little differently and our 'radical acceptance' of not being a 'normal' family.

Reserve your ticket and join us for this live event while you eat your lunch or have your morning tea depending where in Australia you are joining us from.

If you are able to make a donation to help us distribute hard copies of this resource around the country or just support the work we do then please add a donation to your ticket booking when checking out.