Although most educators who work with Autistic children and others with disabilities are well-meaning professionals who would never intentionally harm a child, there are some who are poorly trained or temperamentally unsuited to the job, and abuse does occur. Because of ignorant stereotypes about Autistic children, such as the persistent myths that they do not feel pain or do not have emotions, school administrators and prosecutors may not take reports of abuse as seriously as if the victims were other children. This needs to be recognized for what it is—a discriminatory failure to afford to a minority group the equal protection of the law—and dealt with accordingly. These concerns also apply to the investigation and, when appropriate, prosecution of abuse and neglect by caregivers.

Abusive and dangerous practices have found their way into some schools and other facilities under the guise of educational methods or psychological treatment. These include aversive interventions, a term that refers to the application of pain as a means of behavior modification, which was long ago recognized as barbaric and made illegal in other contexts such as prisons. As a result of aversives and abusive restraint practices, every year students and adults in institutions are injured or even killed. ASAN advocates the passage of both federal and state legislation fully banning the use of aversives and banning non-emergency restraint and seclusion.

Bullying is a persistent problem that can do significant damage to its victims. Students on the autism spectrum often are particularly vulnerable to bullies because of social and behavioral differences. As a result of bullying, many Autistic students face serious emotional and/or physical injury if they remain in their home schools, and they may end up being transferred to segregated placements in a misguided attempt to protect them. Such a response, which wrongly assumes that bullying is inevitable, reflects an unacceptable failure to meet the responsibility of ensuring a proper school environment for every child. This can and should be addressed through the political process, by enacting and sufficiently funding the enforcement of strong anti-bullying legislation.