Background Germany’s obligatory school attendance means that homeschooling is no legal option for families. During the Covid-19-pandemic, however, schools had to close during lockdown-periods and instruction had to be provided at home. While there seemed to be a common agreement in media and society that the return to classroom education should be enabled as soon as possible, some students, among them autistic students, seem to benefit from learning at home (Bozkus-Genc & Sani-Bozkurt, 2022; Hornstra et al., 2022). Furthermore, school exclusion of autistic students is a widespread phenomenon, not only, but also in Germany – despite obligatory school attendance (Guldberg, 2021; Lilley, 2015, Grummt et al., 2021). A systematic international literature review was conducted in order to identify advantages and disadvantages of flexi-schooling, to understand why families or schools decide to flexi-school autistic students and how this can be implemented. Method 855 studies were screened, of which 8 finally met the search criteria and were included in the analysis. A thick description of the data set could be reached through thematic analysis. Results Flexi-schooling is rarely a first choice, but is often seen as a positive solution to a challenging and constantly changing situation (Kendall & Taylor, 2014; Lawrence, 2017; Parsons & Lewis, 2010; Smith et al., 2020). It may be a way to provide autistic students with an education that is constructed to meet their individual needs and is flexible enough to address changes in them. Nevertheless, it can also be a challenging process that requires commitment, tolerance and additional efforts from parents and teachers and may face legal, attitudinal, and financial barriers. Conclusions Flexi-schooling is an idea that has not yet been widely implemented in practice, and there is little information available about how it is put into action. The success of flexi-schooling depends on the needs and preferences of the individual student and the parental and school engagement. From a German perspective, flexi-schooling as it is presented in this review is no option to prevent school exclusions while fulfilling compulsory education requirements. However, a need for flexible education options is evident. Solutions like cyber schools or any other measure to establish parts of school at home (organized and monitored by the school) would be interesting to keep autistic students in school and at the same time offering them a space to learn in their own way.

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