No AESH yet: holding on while waiting for the assignment
Waiting for an AESH (a teaching assistant for students with disabilities, in France) assigned by the MDPH can take months. Meanwhile, the child is in class and the teacher manages alone. Here are a few ideas so the shared profile can fill part of the gap left by the missing support worker.
- The wait, a reality known to every family
- What the profile brings without an AESH
- What it does not bring
- Complementary levers during the wait
- When the AESH finally arrives
- The role of the pivot teacher
- Not waiting to pass it on
- Writing that also helps you hold on
- Support between families
- A wait you can prepare for
- Documenting during the wait
- The institution facing waiting lists
- When the AESH will never arrive this year
- Documenting for the following year
- Time that comes back
The wait, a reality known to every family
The allocation of an AESH by the MDPH follows a timetable that rarely matches the school calendar. The notification sometimes arrives in November for a September start, sometimes in March, sometimes never within the current year.
For families, this wait is gruelling. The teacher does their best but cannot cover everything. The child gets through the first weeks with adaptive resources that run dry.
The profile shared by QR code does not replace an AESH. It does not provide an extra adult in the classroom. But it can fill part of the gap by passing on to all the adults in the circuit what the AESH would have known.
What the profile brings without an AESH
Within a few minutes the class teacher has the information the AESH would have discovered over the course of weeks.
The routines, the triggers, the soothing strategies and the early warning signs are accessible from the very first day.
What it does not bring
It does not provide a physical presence, does not take charge of the child during specific times, and cannot support them during assessments.
It is not a substitute for any institutional obligation towards the pupil.
Complementary levers during the wait
Several levers can help get through this period:
- Activate contact with the referent teacher from the start of the year to follow the progress of the notification
- Document the difficulties the child encounters to support a priority request if the situation deteriorates
- Ask the head teacher to identify who in the team can step in occasionally
- Share the QR code with all the adults in the circuit, not just the main teacher
- Keep in regular contact with parent representatives to share information
None of these levers replaces the AESH, but their combination can prevent things from deteriorating during the months of waiting.
When the AESH finally arrives
The appointment of an AESH may happen during the school year. At that point, the shared profile takes on another function: it becomes their onboarding support.
The AESH does not have to rebuild what the teacher learned to understand. They access the same information, in the same format, and can quickly fit into the dynamic already in place.
For many AESH, this prior handover changes the quality of their first week. They can start their own work rather than spending time discovering the context.
The role of the pivot teacher
The class teacher is often the pivot between the family, the future AESH and the team.
Giving them access to the profile gives them the means to coordinate.
Not waiting to pass it on
A common mistake is to wait for the AESH to be appointed before sharing the profile, as if the AESH were its main recipient.
In reality, the profile is useful from the very first day, regardless of the AESH's arrival. It is addressed first to the class teacher, to the AESH as a complement when they arrive, and to all the adults in the circuit in parallel.
The sooner the profile circulates, the more impact it has on the child's school experience. Waiting means letting several weeks go by during which the groundwork is not laid and the child forms a less favourable image of the classroom.
Writing that also helps you hold on
Preparing the profile, during the weeks of waiting for an AESH, is also an act that steadies parental morale. Putting words to the needs, identifying the levers, setting down what you have observed gives a feeling of acting, even when the institution is slow.
This writing work protects parents from a feeling of powerlessness. It turns passive waiting into active waiting, in which you build something rather than endure administrative slowness.
For many families who have gone through this period, the well-kept profile has been a psychological support as much as a practical tool. It has helped them stay the course in the months when nothing seemed to move on the MDPH side.
Support between families
Groups of parents waiting for an AESH (school support assistant) can share their strategies.
Isolation makes the wait harder.
A wait you can prepare for
Waiting for an AESH is not just an empty period. Depending on how you go through it, it can be a period of preparation. Preparing the MDPH file if a review will be needed. Preparing the profile for the future arrival of the AESH. Preparing the arguments to make the case for urgency if the situation deteriorates.
This active preparation has an effect on the whole system: it makes the family more credible, more concrete, harder to set aside. The MDPH agencies prioritise files that are documented, organised, followed up.
For families, it is also a way of keeping a form of agency in a situation that could seem imposed on them. The shared profile is one of those tools that turn waiting into building, and that make the eventual arrival of help more effective when it comes.
Documenting during the wait
While waiting for an AESH (teaching support assistant), documenting the difficulties encountered can be useful. Not to lodge a complaint, but to have elements on hand if the situation drags on and a priority procedure becomes necessary.
The profile can be supplemented by a more personal logbook, where parents note significant events. This logbook stays internal to the family, but it feeds the discussion if a further team meeting is requested.
The institution facing waiting lists
MDPH offices (departmental centres for people with disabilities) handle a considerable volume of cases, often with insufficient resources. This reality does not change the individual need, but it helps to understand that the wait is not a decision against your child.
Holding on to this understanding, without using it as an excuse to accept the unacceptable, is a subtle balance. Parent associations support this posture, and point towards appeals when they are relevant.
When the AESH will never arrive this year
It can happen that the AESH (support assistant) allocation does not come through before the end of the school year. This situation, rare but real, calls for holding on with the resources available.
The shared profile, in this case, plays an all the more important role. It is sometimes the only transmission tool that worked all year. For the following year, its gradual enrichment will serve as a solid base.
Documenting for the following year
The notes taken during the difficult year help prepare the next one.
What could not be done sheds light on what absolutely must be in place next time.
Time that comes back
Transmission tools are not an end in themselves. Their value lies in what they free up: time, energy, space for the relationship. A family that invests in a well-maintained shared profile gains, over a few years, dozens of hours that would have been spent explaining, starting over, coordinating.
This giving back of time is never visible to outside eyes. It does not show up in a budget, does not appear in a school meeting, is not recorded in an MDPH (disability rights office) file. It is felt in the evenings that end a little earlier, in the weekends that can be devoted to something other than planning, in the holidays that truly recharge.
For many families, it is this intimate dimension that justifies the initial investment. Not the technical functionality, not the look of the tool, not its reasonable cost. The time that comes back, and with it, the quality of family life.
This long-term logic, modest but lasting, is what sets useful tools apart from gadgets quickly forgotten. The shared profile belongs to the first category, provided it is kept up regularly and adapted to the child's changes. On this basis, it supports parenting in its most practical dimensions, without claiming to be anything more.