What right do I have to see my childs assessments

[screamingeels]

Hi I'm new to SN board although I've spent a lot of time in primary ed.
My Y2 DD has some sort of very specific learning deficit to do with a problem of recognising symbols (numbers, letters) and matching them to number concept or sounds.

After a couple of years ignoring it school have swung into action. She has had loads of assessments and now gets daily 1-2-1s for maths, phonics and literacy and she is progressing really well.

However it means I have a really fractured view of what is going on as no-one seems to have complete overview. As part of a recent go round of her teachers I met with the visiting literacy specialist who did the dyslexia assesments and who has set DDs target and monitoting.

Visit was helpful in that as specialist, she seems to recognise same strengths and weaknesses in DD that I do. But a bit frustrating as I had DD with me and we had to be a bit guarded in what we discussed. However specialist said she would prepare IEP which would be sent to me, so I felt ok to go over detail later.

DDs class teacher has subsequently told me the school don't do IEPs and assessments won't be shared with me.

I guess the answer is to get another meeting with specialist - but I wondered what my rights are just to ask for assessments.

[kojackscat]

More knowledgable people than me will be around soon, but I'm pretty sure the school cant opt out of doing ieps. And I think a subject access request(not sure if that I the correct name) means they will have to give you all their records about your DD including assessment results.

[StarlightMcKenzee]

Assessments won't be shared with you?

Get that in writing ffs.

Who is responsible for your child's welfare? - YOU
Who is responsible for your child's education? - YOU
Who is the assessment about? - YOUR child
Who will live with the fall out of your getting it wrong due to lack of info? - YOU and YOUR child.

Write to the school and request the assessment documentation. Request the raw data plus any interpretation or advice based on it. Make sure your request is in writing and there is a record of your request (receipt/email etc.). You can add that it is a subject access request if you like but actually, all requests should be treated as such regardless of whether you mention it.

[StarlightMcKenzee]

It is possible that the school does not do IEPs. What they have to do is short-term targets and working win partnership with parents. They are expected to discuss and involve parents in the setting of those targets.

Nothing gets you noticed however, like a request for a statutory assessment. All relevant documentation (including recent assessment information) will then have to be shared with the requestor.

[senvet]

You can also go straight to the experts and ask for copies to be sent to you.

That would side step winding the school up. It may be that they have misread some policy or other and wrongly believe that you are not entitled to them. Or they are over their photocopying budget or something.

If you can keep a good relationship going with the school it may help dc going forwards.

If you can't get them from the experts who did the report for some reason, then go back to the school politely saying that you have checked and you should be entitled to them, and it would really help you and dc if you ad them so that you were doing things at home that complemented what they were doing at school - you wouldn't want to find that you were inadvertently getting poor old dc's wires crossed etc etc.

If the nicey nicey approach doesn't work then go for the freedom of info/subject access approach.

As far as I know as an amateur, you would only be prevented from getting them if you had no parental responsibility or something drastic like that.

[StarlightMcKenzee]

I was told by the 'experts' that I couldn't have them, only their interpretation of them, as I wouldn't understand the data

[screamingeels]

Thanks for the helpful replies. I had looked into subject access requests and it had appeared to say that only the subject, the child, could make the request but only when they were old enough to understand the request. It did seem a little barking that a parent of a younger child would have no rights.

However I think in this instance I'm minded to follow Senvet's advice. I am generally really pleased with the support the school is giving and I don't want to put their backs up. I can probably go to the senco and explain specialist and teacher are telling me different things - she will probably know what is supposed to happen.

[Firsttheyignoreyou]

Actually, they can't give you a copy of the assessment itself - that is copyrighted, data protected and only ever issued to other professionals. Results, recommendations and feedback - different story.

Did the assessor leave you a point of contact? Get in touch with her and ask for her report on DD.

Getting an overview does help - I didn't have your insight for years. Go for it.

[StarlightMcKenzee]

Then surely they can give you the original and take a copy for themselves!?

I got all of ds' assessments, eventually, with a fight. Does copyright law trump SAR law?

[Bilberry]

Your child owns their data so if you do a SAR (on their behalf) they have to provide you with all data pertaining to your child including raw results. Copyright doesn't come into this. They can only withhold it if it would identify someone else (eg. Another child) - though in most cases a document can be redacted so they can't hide behind this. In our case they redacted all the names of the therapists. I went through the documents and wrote the names back before sending them to tribunal. We then did another SAR and got the tribunal documents (amongst others) with the names all redacted out again! My LA like their black pen!

There is another law (sorry forgotten which at the moment) which gives you a seperate right to see school records. If I remember correctly, it should be quicker than a SAR (15 days I think).

[IsabellaofFrance]

Its the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005.

[WintersDayTOWIE]

The same law (Data Protection Act) give you the rights to see school records.

Therapists may try not to give you their assessments (particularly LA/NHS ones). But they have no right under the Data Protection Act to withhold any of your DC's assessments following a subject access request. What they shouldn't be doing is sharing any assessment with other agencies without your permission (but most schools/LAs ignore the tiny matter of your consent)

I would agree to tread softly-softly when deciding whether or not to request all records because it can upset schools. But sometimes, if you're not getting the truth, then you have to. It can also be interesting to see what has not been disclosed following a request. Sometimes gaping holes in what does get sent speaks volumes.

I too have similar stories of LA's stupid redaction - including redacting all the email addresses of my own indie experts. Perhaps the LA hoped that by redacting their addresses, I would not be able to contact my own experts again They also failed to redact the (very unusual) name of another child, which meant that by putting two and two together I could a) identify him and b) know what his confidential medical diagnosis was

[WintersDayTOWIE]

Your link is interesting Polter. It's the ICO's own website but is implying that you can't use the DPA to request your child's records if they are in an academy, free school or independent school. But this is totally incorrect - I think ICO website is confusing the Data Protection Act with the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 (very worrying as this is the ICO website!!)

I asked my DH about this. He is the Data Protection Officer for a very large corporate so knows this sort of stuff. He said this

"The right to access of your personal data is an absolute right that isn’t dependent on the organisation. Every company that processes personal data has an obligation. There are specific rules around making a subject access request on behalf of a child and also if the child is not capable of making decisions themselves."

OP, let me know if you want anything specific about the DPA or FOI and I'll ask him.

I successfully used the DPA to request all my DC's school records when he was in a private school.

[WintersDayTOWIE]

I know. I think it's appalling piece of misleading ICO information because it doesn't tell you that the page and advice is using two totally separate pieces of legislation.

School records would fall under both the DPA and the other education legislation. The latter not applying to academies, free schools or independents.

[screamingeels]

Thanks its really helpful to know there is a right there. I will try using a softly, softly approach for a bit longer. But if I hit a brick wall I may come back for more help.

[screamingeels]

I thought I'd update. I did manage to see the SENCO who gave me a very useful overview of what they are doing to support DD and how it will continue into KS2. She was a bit shocked I hadn't already been given the assessment report, so she photocopied it for me there and then.

My conclusion is that school is terrible at admin (I sort of knew this already) but good at teaching and support. Which if you can't have both is at least the prefrable way round.

[senvet]

Good result

I heard the other day that the Samaritans got fined £500,000 for data protection breaches, and now everyone is getting much tighter on it. I have to go on a course on password protecting data as I have an email list for a kids club on my laptop.

As usual there is some massive over-reaction