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Education failure A new survey has found that many education authorities are failing autistic children and their parents. The survey of 500 parents by Parents Autism Campaign for Education (PACE)* found there was inadequate specialist education for school-aged children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), and that almost no under-fives with the condition received any education. Parents also complained about difficulties obtaining local education authority funding and the "confrontational" nature of the Special Educational Needs Tribunal system. Su Thomas, chair of PACE, said the distribution of services was "incredibly patchy", although there were "some pockets of good practice". She said: "It shows that this postcode lottery still exists throughout the country. There is no easy way of understanding how you access the services and how much support the child can actually get." A Medical Research Council (MRC) review of knowledge about autism* has found as many as six in 1,000 children have an ASD, which is far higher than previous estimates. It also concluded that current evidence does not support controversial claims that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine can cause autism. * The MRC report is available at www.mrc.ac.uk, and the PACE report is free from PACE, tel: 020 72265525 Posted: 14 Jan, 2002
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