Simone Fox Koob

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in relation to an attack on a teenager with autism who was beaten with spanners outside a Melbourne high school.

Police are investigating the assault on Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, after video footage emerged of him being pinned to the ground and repeatedly punched in the head outside Northcote High School on Tuesday afternoon.

The investigation is ongoing, police say, and they are yet to speak to anyone else involved in relation to the incident.

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic boy who was allegedly bashed by a group of teenage thugs claims her son was targeted after standing up for a friend who was being bullied.

A 15-year-old boy has since been charged by police.

He’s been charged with affray, recklessly causing injury and intentionally causing injury.

Rick Morton

The early-intervention strategy for children with autism in the $22 billion NDIS is in disarray, and ­rationing has been introduced for services worth $300 million a year after 30,000 kids were granted ­access.

Worldwide best practice for autism intervention in young children, known as Applied Behaviour Analysis, requires a minimum of 20 hours of one-on-one therapy a week, but under the ­National Disability Insurance Scheme most of the youngest children receive about half of that, with packages between $10,000 and $15,000 a year.

Patrick Williams

When Max was diagnosed with high-functioning autism a year ago, it just made sense to mum Danielle Pritchard.

The three-year-old Brisbane boy had been having troubles with his speech, anxiety, and social skills among other small quirks.

Ms Pritchard knew just how important early intervention would be. As a teacher, she's worked with children similar to her own son before.

With the right treatment and routine finally in place, Max started to come into his own.

Emma Taylor spent her whole life believing that something was wrong with her.

"I've always been called weird or a little bit strange. One of the regulars at work calls me Fruit Loop. It was just something I was used to," the 27-year-old said.

Christopher Knaus

Disability rights campaigners say company’s poor history abroad and lack of experience in disability should have precluded it from role

Disability rights groups, Labor and the Greens have slammed a decision to hire the multinational outsourcing giant Serco in a key role administering the national disability insurance scheme.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) announced on Friday afternoon that Serco, a company with a chequered corporate history, would help run its contact centres under a two-year contract.

A disability care service provider says it is cooperating with a police investigation into the death of a young boy with severe autism who was hit and killed by a train in Sydney's south.

The 11-year-old boy died after he escaped from a respite care facility at Oatley just after 7:00pm yesterday.

His carers alerted authorities and a police search was set up involving Polair and the dog squad.

The boy's body was found at the Oatley train station two hours later.

Police confirmed on Monday morning that the child, who was non-verbal, was hit by a train.

Natalie Jones, speech pathologist/senior clinician at Autism Australia

I’m very proud to be commencing two new education and healthcare services here in the Inverell area – the first helping individuals with autism under the name Autism Australia, and the other a general speech pathology service – about which I’ll explain further down.

A group of graduates from a specialised autism training program have left the dole queue and secured their first jobs inside the department responsible for handing out their disability benefits.