A worrying number of private schools are refusing to enrol students with a disability or asking them to leave, a peak advocacy group says.

Children with Disability Australia receives about 500 reports a year of schools, both private and public, mistreating or discriminating against students with a disability.

These range from schools refusing enrolment because they already have "their quota of autistic students" to teachers asking students to leave.

Deborah Glass

In investigating the abuse of disabled people, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass found a system where process rates above the needs and human rights of people.

We must support the independence and decision making of people with disability, and never more steadfastly than when they make allegations of abuse.

We must support the independence and decision making of people with disability, and never more steadfastly than when they make allegations of abuse.

A WANDIN North mother is calling for more government help for carers of people with high functioning autism.

Two of Angela Jones’s four children have been diagnosed with the disorder, which she said placed a heavy emotional toll on her and other carers.

High functioning autism is a disorder that affects a person’s social and emotional behaviours. According to Aspergers Victoria, the boundaries between high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome are not clear — they are often considered the same disorder.

• Box built to 'calm' clients at Melbourne disability centre
• Disability minister horrified, families sickened by 'coffin-like' box
• Police launch probe into Aspect autism service amid abuse claims, box scandal

Independent assessors are to examine the use of restraint at Australia's leading autism service in the aftermath of a scandal involving a large box built to lock up people with disabilities.

The Andrews government will order the independent review at Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), one of the country's largest disability organisations, to scrutinise staff's use of restraints on clients.

A BOTANIC Ridge mum says two independent Christian schools in Casey tried to reject her daughter because she has autism.

Michelle Brown said she was shocked at the treatment of her five-year-old daughter and it was only after inquiries by the Berwick Leader that one of the schools agreed to accept her back next year.

Ms Brown said her daughter started at the first school in 2013, before her diagnosis, but was told last year she could no longer attend due to a lack of disability funding.

An inquiry into services for people with autism spectrum disorder is calling for submissions from the public, and Bendigo autism advocate Rebecca Kelly has outlined her concerns.

Our kids grow up into adults and we're going to really need to get that support happening.

Rebecca Kelly, autism advocate

Ms Kelly's eight-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism four years ago and her son, who is now six, was diagnosed a year later.

Matthew Wearing had nightmares about going to school.

He remembers being severely bullied, and being dismissed and laughed at, as though he were a "second class student".

Eventually, at 15, he decided that he wouldn't go back. 

He missed nearly three months of year nine. 

"I did develop a fear," he says. "A fear of not being accepted. I felt it all day and all night."

A4 made a submission to Victoria'a review of its Program for Students with Disabilities. 

As well as answering the question raised in the reviews discussion paper, the submission (link below) has a short section on the very topical issue of behaviour management for autistic students , and an extended discussion of Inclusive Education for autistic students in Annex B.

Police have launched a criminal investigation into the alleged abuse of people with autism at one of Australia's leading disability services.

It comes in the wake of a scandal involving a large wooden box built to lock up vulnerable clients at the organisation's autism centre in Melbourne's south-east.

Fairfax Media has confirmed that allegations of criminal acts perpetrated against Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) clients, most of whom cannot talk, were this week referred to Victoria Police.

Victorian teachers have been banned from restraining students with straps, holding them on the ground or locking them in seclusion rooms.

As part of a crackdown on forced restraint and seclusion in schools, the Education Department has released new rules to prevent "violent and dangerous student behaviours".

The new rules, which were emailed to principals on Tuesday night, said "rooms or areas designed specifically or used solely or primarily for the purpose of seclusion are not permitted".