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Does your school have a student in need?

We have partnered with hundreds of schools and educators around Australia in meeting the Disability Standards for Education for students with serious illness.

The difference we
can make together.

We can’t afford to wait until they’re well. School connection keeps sick students in sync socially, helping to nurture their resilience and their identity as learners, and to ease anxiety about school absence and belonging. Critically, school connection offers hope by proving to sick kids that they are worth educating. But schools find supporting sick students during absences a significant challenge. We are here to support education leaders with research, resources, and technology to achieve continuity of education for your students experiencing serious illness and school absence.

Meeting the Disability Standards for Education

The Disability Standards for Education require schools to give students with illness access to school facilities, assistive devices, accredited curriculum, and learning alongside their peers. The Standards do not limit equality to physical presence, and students who miss school with a serious illness still have a right to access their schools with the help of assistive devices and receive ongoing support. Our robots work like access ramps to give sick and absent students an unmistakable presence in their schools.
“We want our kids to graduate with dignity, purpose, and options. The robot was key in keeping and maintaining his dignity, reminding him that he's part of this community, so that there's a purpose to what he does.”
Mathew, Coordinator, Teacher
kid learning
“The robot allowed Angus to be in the workshop with the rest of his class so he could visually watch the demonstrations that his teacher was conducting and he could move around the room and actually be part of that and see what was going on, hear what was going on."
Claire, Teacher
Claire - Teacher
"The kids in my class don't care about anything except that he is there with them. They light up when they see the robot and it changes the whole energy in the room."
Teacher
teacher

What next?

Professional Community
Professional Learning Community  
Be part of a digital community of educators where you can find information, talks, resources, and crowdsource solutions with teachers from across Australia.
Join See-Be Teach Me
fears student
Funding options  
There are multiple ways to fund your support to students with serious illness when they are absent. Our team is available to talk it through.
Chat to us
Resources
Resources  
Investments in students’ healthcare and education – that continue throughout absence from school – ensure they have an equal chance at attainment.
Read more

FAQs

Up to one in three children live with chronic illness, meaning that many students have an illness serious enough to affect their education and attendance. In schools across Australia this equates to up to 1,200,000 students, with an estimated 70,000 missing months to years of school. The student support team (parents, doctors, teachers, hospital school teachers) is obliged to keep the student’s transitions between school and treatment in mind at all times, supporting continuation of their education and social connections across all places of care.

Advances in healthcare are contributing to the growing number of children falling through the cracks and missing school. More children are surviving serious illnesses (e.g. cancers), living longer with life-limiting illnesses (e.g. cystic fibrosis), and gaining clearer diagnoses (e.g. anxiety). Significant school absence for students can be caused by many other illnesses or their treatments e.g., Arthritis, Asthma, Blood Disorders, Brain Injury, Burns, Crohn’s Disease, Depression, Diabetes, Eating Disorders, Epilepsy, Heart/Liver/Kidney Disease, Injury, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndome, Rare Diseases, and Transplants.
Students with serious illness aren’t spending more time in hospitals. While the number of students in this cohort is increasing, many access outpatient care and are isolating at home while symptomatic or in recovery. During a hospital admission, students may have some access to hospital schooling, but often without continuity of their school curriculum, peer connection and community. The school of enrolment is responsible for the student under the Disability Standards for Education.
When schools consider the whole world as their classroom, students who cannot physically attend school because of a serious illness or injury, can “be at school” from wherever they are. Studies indicate the following predictors of success: collaborating with healthcare services; early intervention and planning; integrated and consistent provision of education across home, school and medical settings; individualised, formalised and actionable agreements and adjustments documenting support; measures addressing the student’s social and emotional needs; and continuous connection between a student and their regular school through real-time telepresence when absent.

Unlike more static remote learning technologies (such as Zoom, Teams, or FaceTime, etc.), robots give a two-way video and audio connection between the absent student and school. Robots can be moved within and between classrooms and to other parts of the school to join in assembly or events. The absent student can drive and manoeuvre the robot themselves, without the teacher needing to manage the connection, providing presence and maximising the student’s agency. Real-time connection should continue until the student is well enough to be at school again.

Get in touch

If you’ve got a student in your school community who needs support, our team is on standby to answer any questions you may have. Simply fill out the form or call us on 1300 237 234.



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    MissingSchool acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.  

    We are committed to affirming the identity of the young people we work for and stand in proud solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.

     

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    MissingSchool acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
    We are committed to affirming the identity of the young people we work for and stand in proud solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.

    ©2023 Missing School Inc. All rights reserved.

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