Good cooperation between parents and school

What the guideline named for school and nursery

• Teachers and early-years educators should receive training or comprehensive information about autism: on symptoms and course, co-occurring conditions, transitions, the children’s own experience and the effects on the family. ^{[1, Rec. 109]}
• Support should be individual, be reviewed and adapted over time and compensate for disadvantages caused by the condition without lowering the subject requirements. ^{[1, Rec. 109]}
• A support plan or reasonable adjustments should be formulated in writing in cooperation with professionals, implemented in a binding way and reviewed and adapted regularly. ^{[1, Rec. 109]}
• Parents should be involved in therapies. For school age, they should support homework from therapies in order to promote transfer into everyday life. ^{[1, Rec. 106]}

Preparing the conversation

Practical suggestions from the editorial team (not from the guideline):

• Describe concretely: What overwhelms your child, what helps them, how can overload be recognised?
• Agree a contact person and a fixed rhythm for exchange.
• Name strengths, not only difficulties.
• Bring information material that you have checked, for example this site: Autism in nursery and Pupils with autism in lessons (for teachers).

Putting arrangements in writing

The guideline explicitly named written form for the support plan and reasonable adjustments. ^{[1, Rec. 109]} Record: goals, measures, responsibilities and a date for review. How reasonable adjustments are applied for legally depends on the state: Reasonable adjustments at school (example Bavaria).

When it gets difficult

• School support worker: The guideline pointed to a field of tension between different clients and to the fact that school support can also have an excluding effect; it relied on a survey with a response rate below 50 %, which it itself classified critically. ^{[1, Ch. C.10.2.2]} More: School support workers in everyday school life.
• If your child cannot go to school: School avoidance and school absenteeism.
• In a dispute, independent advice centres help: Finding advice.

What else you should know

• The guideline named no study on the quality of cooperation between parents and school. How good cooperation concretely affects school success, the editorial team therefore cannot substantiate.
• Therapeutic interventions are, according to the guideline, not to be taken over by teachers or early-years educators. School support is accompaniment in learning and working. ^{[1, Ch. C.10.2.3]}

Sources and literature

1. DGKJP, DGPPN et al. Autismus-Spektrum-Störungen im Kindes-, Jugend- und Erwachsenenalter. Teil 2: Therapie. S3-Leitlinie, AWMF-Reg.-Nr. 028-047, Stand Text 02.05.2021 (Kap. C.10.2, Empf. 106, 109). – Guideline (in German); expired on 23 March 2026 (see no. 2)
2. DGKJP. Aktuelle Leitlinien (Eintrag 028-047: „Gültig bis 23.03.2026“). https://www.dgkjp.de/wissen/aktuelle-leitlinien/ – Professional society (website in German)