This page outlines how education staff, care services, parents, guardians, and health professionals work together to manage a child or student with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in education and care settings.

About fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a diagnostic term for an acquired fetal brain injury. FASD can cause severe physical, cognitive, and developmental impairments that result from brain damage caused by alcohol exposure before birth.

Learn more about FASD including:

• preventions
• characteristics and diagnosis
• impacts.

Health support plans and agreements

If the child or student has FASD, the education or care service should refer to health support planning for children and students in education and care settings to ensure that the appropriate plans and agreements are in place. This is in addition to the FASD-specific plans and agreements listed on this page.

Behavioural support strategies

Regulation scale to identify behaviour

The regulation scale – HSP 432 (DOC 749 KB) is a tool that education care staff can use to help children to identify:

• what is happening around them that is impacting on their mood change
• what signals their body is giving them
• ways to respond to their body’s signals that will help them manage the change in mood.

The regulation scale guide – HSP432a (PDF 502 KB) supports the development of the regulation scale. It can be used with interoception activities to help the child develop meaningful interoception skills.

Some examples of completed regulation scales include:

• externalising behaviour (PDF 354KB)
• internalising behaviour (PDF 130KB)
• symbols and reduced language (PDF 170KB)
• year 3 boy (PDF 159KB).

Understanding student behaviour

The understanding behaviour template – HSP433 (DOC 456KB) helps to identify why behaviours are occurring how to change it.

The template can be used to:

• identify possible triggers for the concerning behaviour
• document what is happening when the behaviour is most likely to occur
• compare when the behaviour is least or most likely to occur
• help you identify the purpose of the behaviour
• identify teaching environments best suited to the young person.

Educational adjustments

Educational adjustments support students on an individual basis. Adjustments should be determined by the parents and education and care service and documented in the health support agreement.

Training for education and care staff

Children and young people with FASD may have low levels of interoception, which means they are unable to understand or connect with their bodies in ways that would enable them to self-regulate. It's important to teach interoception to help children and young people develop skills in this area.

Learn more about interoception and how it can be applied in the classroom including:

• benefits of teaching interoception
• interoception tools and resources
• models of interoception in the classroom.

How parents and caregivers can help

Parents or guardians must:

• notify the school, preschool or care service if their child has FASD
• complete health care plans and agreements with their health care professionals and provide them to the school, preschool or care service
• provide required medication to the school, preschool or care service.

If a medication agreement is in place, parents and caregivers must fulfil the roles and responsibilities outlined on the medication management and care page.

How health professionals can help

Health professionals support schools, preschools, care services and families by helping to develop the care plan and any supporting medication and care agreements.