I have a vulnerable 17 year old Autistic daughter in year 13 of a faith school.
She moved into a rented room some months ago with our reluctant approval and she visits us every few weeks for socializing, driving lessons etc. and she has her room and mail sent here and we (her mum and dad) are her immediate contacts.
She has been reluctant to share her address though, and as this was a concern for her safety, security and vulnerability resons, I obtained it from her school, though it seems not to have been added to the system.
She has moved again recently and the school are now taking a different approach and claiming DPO requires her to approve any disclosure for any child over 16. This may be the case for some children, but I do not think the same applies for vulnerable ones and where both parents have full custody.
This wasn’t a problem before and when I spoke to the SENCO last week to check her address, they were happy to share, but had an old/wrong address and I was able to update multiple newer ones for them.
This means that a vulnerable child has no current contact address for school or parents, which is very concerning.
She turns 18 in 2 days (which may change things THEN), but she is 17 NOW and delaying tactics by the school is very suspect to deal with the NOW.
When school provided her last address, we had no need to inform her that we knew or a need to visit there, we wanted it for safety purposes.
Disclosure is also a two way thing. We have always provided our/our daughter’s address details as a matter of courtesy to her school, even this week. Is school required to have a student’s address and who is responsible for providing/obtaining or checking this? If a school is required, then how are they more relevant than the parents (and we receive her mail here at the parental home)? When she is at school, the school don’t need her address as she is there and after school, they are not responsible or available. We as parents of a vulnerable child are the ones who need to know where she is. As it stands, (if legally we cannot be informed) it is likely that she will not provide an up to date or correct address to the school or us, and it becomes a classic case of where legal tecticalities make a vulnerable child unsafe with no known address for anyone to contact her.
Any thoughts? About the school doing one thing, (sharing address) then another (claiming CPO won’t allow without permission), the another (sharing her address, albeit very old) and also I can access and change all of her details on the app, so many conflicts. About whether I have a right to know where she lives. About her safety? Suicide has been a issue, but not sure if school is aware.
Any definitive or legal response ASAP would be great so I can contact school and before she is 18.