Students with hearing or visual impairments were once seen as a challenge for inclusive education. In many ways, they still sometimes can be. But over time, schools have built up expertise, support structures and experience. In many systems, this is no longer where the greatest tensions lie. The group that increasingly defines the challenge looks different.

Students with complex behavioural issues, mental health needs, or unstable and unsafe home situations. Students who, not that long ago, would more often and more quickly have been supported through youth care or specialised services. Today, in many countries, they have to remain in schools, often for longer than intended, simply because there is nowhere else for them to go.

Recent reports from youth care and inspection bodies make this visible. Long waiting lists. Very young children end up in highly restrictive settings. Young people are staying in places that are clearly not designed for them, because there are no alternatives. This is not a collection of isolated issues. It is what a system under pressure looks like.

And what happens in youth care does not stay there. It spills over into schools, into boarding systems, into any part of the system that is still accessible. Teachers try to do what they can, often with a persistent sense that it is not enough.

What looks like a logical redistribution of responsibilities is, in fact, something else. When one part of the system is under strain, another part absorbs the pressure until it, too, starts to strain. And so on.

We often think in sectors. Youth care is youth care. Education is education. But in practice, it is one chain. When that chain blocks, the effects are felt everywhere.

You can see this in how problems escalate. When support at home takes months to access, problems do not disappear. They grow more complex, more acute. By the time support becomes available, it is often already a crisis. Young people then end up in settings that were meant to be a last resort.

Schools are right in the middle of this. Not because they chose to be, but because they are there. They are open every day. They cannot simply turn students away. And so, gradually, they become buffer zones. This asks more of schools than we often acknowledge. Not only teaching, but also care, support and crisis management. All while we continue to expect them to deliver a good education.

This is not a criticism of schools. On the contrary, the fact that they continue to function is one of the reasons the system does not grind to a halt. The more important question is: how do we reduce the need?

Part of the answer lies outside education. Reducing waiting times. Strengthening youth services. Addressing poverty. These are not new ideas, but they are necessary conditions. As long as support comes too late, it will always be more intensive and more costly.

At the same time, there are things schools can do without taking on the role of youth care. Strong classroom practices. Predictability. Clear structures. Working relationships. These do not solve complex life situations, but they can help prevent further escalation. No silver bullets. These are reasonable best bets.

And perhaps, at its core, we need something simpler as a goal for education: making school a place where, at least for a moment, you can simply be a student among other students.