My ds is to be excluded as there is no help for him. Also they are now looking at special needs secondary school.

If he is statmented then the school has to provide support. His helper has resighned so the school should find him another helper.

What you have described here is depressingly common.

Some pointers;

"Because we don't have an LSA" is not a recognised reason to exclude a child.

Basically the school will be clueless as to how to deal with your child.

They cannot appear clueless, so they make her/his "behaviour" the problem rather than their inability to engage with him.

They focus on the negative behaviour and then give themselves permission to exclude.

If they can dump a load of guilt on you at the same time so much the better.

It can be helpfull to mention that you know the act says they must fund 20 (might be 25 - I forget) hours of education based activity for him/her every week. This would have to start the day after he was permanently excluded.

You mention this because, naturally, they will not provide it, but if you comissioned it and then tried to recover the costs from the LA they would have no defence at the county court since they have a statutory duty to deliver.

I have known this work exceedingly well for parents in the past. Mention that you would be suing the lead councilor for education at her/his home address if you really want to make them squirm....

I know it's not a nice thing to have to do but it can be a big help getting your yp's needs met.

Put a request in for an annual review to take place asap then.

That is alright then! A lot of parents (me included) are looking at independent SEN schools which the LEA hate us for because it costs them extra money!

Just a little word of advice. Do NOT tell the LEA you are looking at an independent special needs school. This sort of school will cost them money and they will fight you every step of the way. Do ring SOSSEN. They are brilliant and helping me.

I am sorry to sound so negative but trust no one connected to the LEA or on their payroll.

SOSSEN will guide you very well.

From what you have actually written, your child's statement seems a bit woolly. You need a reassessment to take into account the fact that he will be transferring to a senior school. You can request this reassessment yourself. It carries more weight if a parent requests it because if the reassessment is refused, a parent can appeal. If a school request an assessment and they are refused, they are not allowed to appeal.

Anyway, I am wittering away here. Hope you did manage to ring either SOSSEN or IPSEA today.

Parent Partnership do work very closely with the LEA, I would also seek independent advice from IPSEA and SOS:SEN.

Hi HNY, I am so sorry to hear of your situation. I work in SEN for the local authority and the others posters are right about your child's right to receive the support that is on his statement. The school are in danger of contravening the Disability Discrimination Act by saying already that he'll be excluded when he hasn't done anything to warrant this and it is their responsibility to find someone to support him. They can't change his statement without going through a formal process either - we would not normally allow a secondary to refuse entry as the presumption should be that he will cope in a m/s school with support. If that is found not to be the case then they can call an early annual review in the Autumn term to assess whether a change of placement is required.

Your first port of call should definitely be your SEN dept at the council - you could also try Education Welfare (again at the council), the SEN Governor of your school and Parent Partnership who work for the council but are advocates for the parents.

Best wishes.

(BTW I have 3 sons, 1 is NT, 1 is AS / HFA and in MS with lots of great input b ut problems in unstructured times, he ahs problems as well with severe dyslexia. DS3 is mroe severe and is in MS part time at the mo with FT 1-1 (he's FT from Easter with FT 1-1 as well), but being assessed to find out which SN school will suit him best longer term).

Just an addition- I don't know about where you live (which could be next door for all I know!) but here there is a chronic shortage of LSA's. The reason locally is that the college where they have to attend to get their certs has changed from evening to day classes, which takes all the trainess- by far the majority of those looking for jobs- away from the system. They had 4 lined up for ds3, by the time his statement was confirmed there was only one left, and she only becuase she only wanted to work in the village- she'd had several offers.

So although needs are legally required, in a few cases atm its proving impossible.

Happy, I know someone who works in a residential and day special school. He says that for many of the families the residential aspect can be a life saver, and that the children are often happier too, because the have the consistancy etc and levels of care that they need.

He works with two boys with autism, he has a permanent helper.

When I work with children with ASD they are ofetn in a class of 24, and if I'm lucky they have a lsw, they don't always have that support. plus my mate is trained properly to help the children in the school reach their potential. Most of what I know about asd had come from reading MN.

Yurt1 would be a good person to talk bout this, he son has benn in MS and is now thriving in a special school

do you want him in MS?

If so this will have to be accomodated unless there is significant risk to him or other childre by him being there. they cannot exclude him - this will be breaking the disability discrimination act and they can be prosecuted.

I think you are on the way to resolve this but if you eed the act to quote am happy to oblige.

I would visit the Special school and see what its like rather than going on word of mouth.

You need to ask what qualifications the children do (if Any!) What the structure of the day is like? What range of special needs the other kids have and class size.

Advantage of special schools is that everyone knows everyone. If a child gets lost they will take them to where they are supposed to be. Your child would be nutured in a good special school and wrapped in cotton wool.

Disadvantages is that there is often a limited choice of GCSEs. Dependining on the school there may be a lack of good role models and academical expectations may be low.

I think you are wrong to reject any option out of hand. Go and see different schools and then make the decision. Incidently MLD schools are often over subscribed, I would be surprised if your son could get a place for year 7.

Sos Sen is a charity which you can ring with problems to do with schooling etc for a special education needs kid. They are very good and will help you fight your case, plus they can tell you all the legal ins and outs to do with statements. Any LEA would be a fool to take on Marion from SOS SEN, as she is a force to be reckoned with!

Sos Sen is a charity which you can ring with problems to do with schooling etc for a special education needs kid. They are very good and will help you fight your case, plus they can tell you all the legal ins and outs to do with statements. Any LEA would be a fool to take on Marion from SOS SEN, as she is a force to be reckoned with!