Feeling alerted that the increase in autistic students is "stressing" classrooms in Lanzarote

The Sentirte Association, founded to defend the rights of autistic people and their families in Lanzarote, has denounced that the increase in autistic students and those with specific educational support needs "is increasingly straining the classrooms of the island", without this reality being accompanied by sufficient reinforcement of human, technical, and specialized resources.

The president of Sentirte, Lucía Gómez, has warned that "there are more diagnoses, more diversity in classrooms, and more support needs, but resources are not growing at the same pace."

"The problem is not that there are more autistic students in classrooms; the problem is that the educational system is not responding with the means that this reality demands," said Gómez.

The association recalls that in the Canary Islands it is estimated that there are more than 22,000 autistic people and that autistic students have experienced significant growth in recent years. In Spain as a whole, autistic students identified in non-university education already exceed 100,000 students, according to data from the Ministry of Education analyzed by Autismo España.

For Lucía Gómez, this data highlights a reality that is also experienced in Lanzarote: "talking about inclusion without sufficient educational assistants, without specialists, without specific training, without real reduction of ratios, and without stable support is placing on schools, teachers, and families a responsibility that the Department of Education must assume."

Sentirte also warns that teaching and educational guidance teams "are overwhelmed," a situation that has direct consequences on students. As explained by its president, "the saturation of these teams reduces educational quality in classrooms and delays psychopedagogical assessments and, with them, also the implementation of adaptations, support, and educational measures that many children need to progress on equal terms."

"When an assessment is delayed, an educational response is delayed. An adaptation, a support, an intervention is also delayed, and in many cases, the possibility for that student to be in the classroom with the conditions they need," Gómez stressed.

The president of Sentirte also insisted that teachers need more resources to be able to properly attend to autistic students and all students with specific educational support needs.

“Teachers cannot solely sustain inclusion that requires planning, specialized staff, time, training, and resources. There is commitment in the schools, but commitment does not replace the means,” he added.

From Sentirte, they demand that the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands "urgently reinforce resources in the educational centers of Lanzarote, especially through the incorporation of more educational assistants, specialist professionals in attention to diversity, stable support staff, specific training for teachers, and orientation teams sized to the current reality."

“Inclusion cannot be a declaration of intent. It must translate into real resources, sufficient professionals, and timely responses,” argued Lucía Gómez. Sentirte insists that the increase in autistic students "should never become a problem attributed to the children, but rather an urgent call to strengthen the educational system."