Task engagement difficulties among students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are frequently observed in inclusive classroom settings and are often interpreted as noncompliance or low motivation. However, increasing evidence suggests that disengagement more accurately reflects a mismatch between students’ regulation needs and everyday classroom demands, including transitions, time constraints, group-based instruction and unpredictable routines. When such mismatches occur, students may experience difficulties sustaining attention, initiating tasks and persisting during academic activities, thereby limiting their access to meaningful learning opportunities. This conceptual paper reconceptualises task disengagement as a regulation-sensitive process shaped by dynamic interactions between emotion regulation and classroom practices. Drawing on Gross’s Extended Process Model, emotion regulation is conceptualised as a phased process involving emotion identification, strategy selection, implementation and monitoring, where difficulties at any stage may undermine students’ capacity to remain organised, flexible and attentive during cognitively demanding classroom tasks. Complementing this perspective, the Neural Preferencing Locus of Control formulation highlights how preferences for predictability and control shape emotional responses to learning demands with avoidance and withdrawal functioning as adaptive responses to perceived uncertainty or loss of control. Building on these theoretical perspectives, this paper proposes an integrative conceptual framework that positions emotion regulation as a foundational mechanism influencing task engagement, while classroom practices operate as contextual conditions that can either buffer or intensify regulatory load. The framework reframes disengagement as an adaptive response rather than a behavioural deficit and highlights important implications for inclusive classroom design, emotionally responsive teaching and future research aimed at strengthening the conceptual integration of emotion regulation and classroom practices in understanding task engagement among autistic learners.