How to argue the point on ASD with Appeal panel

The panelists will have read your submission, So there's nothing to be gained by just reading it out, although sometimes people do that because it makes them more comfortable - The main thing is to present in a way that you are most comfortable with.

The key thing on the day is to emphasise your key points. Panelists (and the admissions authority) will have a chance to ask you questions if there's anything they feel you haven't covered.

Don't introduce any new evidence or new points at the Appeal itself, unless it really can't be helped - a new diagnosis for example. Technically panels don't have to accept any new evidence on the day.

Reported. Stop spamming appeals threads like this.

Neurodivergent doesn’t just mean autism - in a class of 30 on average 3 will be dyslexic, 1 will have FASD, 1 or 2 developmental language disorder, 1 autism, 1 adhd, 3 dyspraxia, 1 very high IQ, there may also be brain injury, epilepsy, dyscalculia, rare genetic conditions…

It's not exceptional - it's pretty much a certainty that every secondary school has at least one student with T1. There's a long standing protocol of the Diabetic Nursing Team working with schools to ensure that the relevant staff have training, it's taken for granted that a kid with a CGM will be exempt from all rules regarding having a phone visible and switched on, schools will have fridges and storage for medical supplies and snacks.

My DS1 was born at 24 weeks over 20 years ago. He was born on the cusp of viability and there were no statistics recorded for babies born as early as him regarding their future progression, because so few had survived at that gestation. We have been told by neonatologists and paediatricians that he’s a medical miracle. He has multiple disabilities including autism.

We were unsuccessful with applying under the ESM category for his primary school place and were told there was nothing exceptional about our son’s situation. We hadn’t applied for an EHCP at that point because we’d been advised that it would be better to wait until he was at school. We then received different advice and did get an EHCP awarded with 1:1 support, without any struggle at all, for when he started school. Clearly his need was there - but it (entirely fairly) wasn’t deemed to be a need that could only be met by one school.

As others have said, it is incredibly hard to prove exceptional social or medical need. Have you applied for an EHCP?

My understanding is that school X may view ESM Need as a need that only school X can meet.

Did you provide ESM Need paperwork with the original application or has this come up subsequently?

ETA x-post with PatriciaHolm who is an expert!

As a panelist and school governor - The "exceptional" (social or
Medical) criteria in admissions is by its nature a very subjective one, and is increasingly being phased out by schools and admission authorities because it is very difficult to judge.

It requires that this School, and only this School, to be the one that meets the child needs; this is actually an extremely high bar to reach in most cases, and obviously is something that is often a subjective determination by a panel of Governors/senior leaders/sometimes a panel from the LA. There is no specific requirement for how that panel is constituted (though the admissions authority must lay out how they will define the need and what evidence they would require). Very few applications meet this criteria.

The threshold to win an appeal is different; that is about the balance of prejudice between the child and the school. It does not require the parent to categorically prove this is the only school that meets the child's needs. That is what you need to focus on OP - what is it about this school very specifically (and provably) that really meets the needs of your child?

Think to yourself:
Why is this school better for my DC?
Not better teaching/results but things specific to your DC.
Eg
. Nurture room (uses one at primary)
. Dungeons and Dragons club (has interest already)
. Staggered lunch breaks so quieter (better for sensory overload)
. Electronics club (he tinkers at home)

Your situation is completely different, though.

OP’s DC can’t have an EHCP. If her DC did, she wouldn’t have needed to request DC is considered under the exceptional medical and social needs category of the normal admissions process.

OP is in England, she has another thread going at the moment with her location.

I know this, I was just helping the OP with a real life example. As far as I can see, they haven't said which country they are in, or whether their child has an ehcp (assuming not) and nor have they said why they feel this school is the one that can meet needs over the others. I may have missed it though.

If you child has an EHCP, admissions are dealt with outside of the normal admission arrangement, so your DC does not come under the exceptional medical and social need category. That category is part of the normal admission process (and even then only for certain schools because not all schools have such a category in their oversubscription criteria.)

Admissions to state schools in England are covered by the Admissions Code and appeals by the Appeals Code, but there is nothing in there stating ASD has to be included in the exceptional medical and social needs category even if the school has one (and not all schools do because they don’t have to).

Are you in England?

I can give you a real world example. My son has specific requirements of a school (albeit in our case its in an EHCP, but based on recommendations from professionals)

One is that he needs free access to outside space. School A can provide this, as each of their class has direct access from the classroom to their own individual, enclosed garden space. School B cannot meet this need, as their classrooms do not have direct outdoor access. Therefore, in this case, he has an exceptional medical need that school A can provide, but B cannot.

This is advised by an occupational therapist and an educational psychologist as being essential for him to be in a mainstream school, not because mum thinks it'd be nice for him to be able to play outside more.

It feels to me as if you are reading their statement to mean "no child with ASD can meet exceptional medical criteria", but they haven't said that.

For example: They might say "having a visual impairment is not an exceptional medical need". That does not mean that the subset of "being nearly completely blind" is not an exceptional medical need.

Has there been an EHCNA applied for? If not, why not? Local authorities don't usually put ASD into exceptional medical needs categories, as another poster has said, if the ASD is impacting the child to that extent then the local authority would expect an EHCNA to be in process or the child to have an EHCP.
Your appeal should always be for the school you are requesting, not against the school you've been allocated.
So, the appeal should include anything the requested school offers which would meet need without an EHCP which the offered school doesn't. This may be things like its a much smaller school and your child's profile means they become dysregulated in large environments. They may have nurture groups etc. With no ehcp the onus is on you to seek out the differences in each schools local ordinary available offer, because things like specialist units within schools can normally only be accessed with an EHCP

But saying (quite rightly) that it's 'a broad spectrum' is the same as them 'generalising ASD.' It's okay to generalise that it's not exceptional because exception literally means it cannot be a common thing, and it is a common thing. What is not common, it the more extreme/complex presentations, which is a specific thing which you can evidence and appeal for a special placement for etc. ASD as a general category is not an exceptional medical need. My DS is ASD and does not have exceptional medical needs, as is the case with many others. I don't know why you're fixating on that statement when you seem to understand that there are lots of ASD children who don't qualify as exceptions. Focus on the specifics instead then the generalising will not apply to the case.

Agree. They need more detail than an ASD diagnosis to consider it as “exceptional”.

Is theee anything on the government website another the rules and regulations regarding this?

I had a long battle with my local authority regarding paying for my children to travel to school. They kept on telling me they had no responsibility with this. I eventually had the idea of looking up the statutory guidance on the government website and found the
council had been lying to me. As soon as I emailed them with a link to the regulations and a quote of the relevant section, they caved in and even backdated their payments. I’m sure they knew the rules all along. More than 10 years later, their web page on this still does not reflect the actual regulations.

I think you are misunderstanding their point. They are not saying that anybody with ASD won't have exceptional needs. They are saying that an ASD diagnosis in itself doesn't prove a child had exceptional needs in this specific context.

But still.

If the ASD is impactful enough the child will have an EHCP.

ASD in and of itself as a diagnosis is not an exceptional medical need. If they agreed it was then all children with an ASD diagnosis would be in the exceptional medical or social need category. (And it is hardly the LAs fault that ASD is such a broad diagnosis.)

Now of course you may be able to argue that your child's needs are exceptional even though presumably they don't have an EHCP.

But regardless you need to show what specifically about this school is beneficial to your specific child such that they would be disadvantaged by not attending.