Are Primary schools BU with their inability to take in children with disabilities

[shattereddreams]

I was going to post in primary schools but it's full of newbies with appeal questions and this is slightly off topic....

I have over the last few months heard more and more of children with disabilities not being admitted to their local primaries because the schools didn't want them...

I am confused as I thought children with needs got absolute priority over their choice of primary. It seems I was mistaken and actually they are the bottom of the pile.

I've now come across in my small town YR this year (all different schools I may add)
Down's being refused admittance even though the medical people since birth said the child was suitable for mainstream primary education
Autism being refused admittance even with a sibling at the school
Cerebral Palsy because wheelchair was not suitable even though it was used within the school nursery
Diabetes high dependency on insulin being refused admittance even with a sibling at school and again the nursery staff being able to cope with the medical needs.

What gives the primary schools the right to refuse admittance to the examples with siblings?
Surely this is totally unreasonable!

Children with additional needs/special needs get priority if it can be proven the school has better provision for them than a nearer school.

As for schools not taking children with certain disabilities, I expect that's down to funding and suitable resources.

I have over the last few months heard more and more of children with disabilities not being admitted to their local primaries because the schools didn't want them...
Schools can't 'refuse' so YABU. LA's decide who gets a place.
The LA look for the most suitable school and recommend it to the parents. All schools should be open to all DC regardless of ability. There is money available to make adjustments to inaccessible buildings and for one to one support for those who need it but as I said, it's the LA that decides.

I should have said ideally all schools should be open to all DC regardless of situation/ disability.

But if the parent didn't tick a box on the admission form saying special needs, for example if they didn't feel their child was 'special' then the child on paper would have been given a place.

It must the school first who says no to the LA who has to pay regardless of which school.

and as Worra said Children with additional needs/special needs get priority if it can be proven the school has better provision for them than a nearer school.

Ordinary primary schools often just don't have the resources to really teach children with moderate learning disabilities. I used to go around assessing children with Down syndrome, mostly in mainstream schools, and the vast majority of them spent practically the entire day with a teaching assistant and didn't participate in class at all. They would have been much better of in a special school IMO.

No. The LA receive and process the applications not the school.
Why would any parent who's child has a disability severe enough to warrant support say that their DC hasn't got additional needs?
The LA are in a position to know if a particular school has the correct facilities.

But if the parent didn't tick a box on the admission form saying special needs, for example if they didn't feel their child was 'special' then the child on paper would have been given a place

Well yes, and then that place would be withdrawn as soon as the child turned up and the School realised they can't provide for its needs

YANBU - MsKitty has described how it should work, but in relatity it doesn't work like that at all. My ds was already in mainstream school Yr2 before his medical condition upped in severity and started producing more serious physical disabilities. Many staff at the school couldn't be bothered to include him, make adaptations, members of staff ridiculed him in front of other parents (who told me by the way) everything was odne with a sigh or not done at all, they didn't even notice until 24 hours later that ds wasn't in school because he had been rushed into hospital.....and I was a goverbor at the school, and am an experienced teacher, so I know how it should be. It took 8 months of me fighting the LA, to the point of staging a sit in at their offices, and getting mp to fight on my side before they agreed they hada responsibiklity to move him to a suitable mainstream school that could be bothered. Then I secureed full time funding via the pct, and most of the local schools still wouldn't take him, and the LA refused to make them. Finally a fab Headteacher said she should love to have him, he started there last June, the Head increased staffing levels to be able to have dd1 as well, and has been so supportive, so there are good ones out there too, just fewer of them than bad in my experience.

School admissions told me they didn't care about physical disabilities, only were interested in learning difficulties.......actual words they used, and yes I complained about that too!

I wonder if someone from the schools thread can answer this. I thought that allocation was now entirely down to the local authority (unless an academy)?

Gate yes, it's entirely down to the LA

In this borough anyway and always has been

My sister manages an autistic unit attached to a school and these kiddies just could not cope in mainstream school also schools have a duty make sure that learning for other non disabled children is not disrupted.

Most cases are judged on an indivdual needs basis.

In your case sparkle it was a transfer. Unfotunately the LA didn't keep up in your case :( Was the school you wanted your DC transferred to full?

schools has said it all eloquently! :)

my son has low level austism, and the school is finding it hard to get the funding for him to have extra help he needs.

not sure if he has been statmented yet, but the last parent evening that was the plan.

i think it comes down to funding and if the school has the support and resources to help

Yeah, in theory schools can't discriminate against disabled children in admissions. But in practice it's amazing how schools and LEAs can wriggle out of their responsibilities. Just as on one occasion known to me an A&E department threw out a man with learning disabilties who was having a heart attack - put him in an ambulance (not a 999 one, patient transport) and sent him back to the LD unit that had taken him to A&E. If doctors and nurses can be that prejudiced, discriminatory and negligent, do you really think schools can't manage to be just as bad?

Kitty - Ours was a transfer, but the apllication process is the same. We needed a DDA compliant school, with good disbaled access. Our local authority chose to fill all its DDA compliant schools with able bodied children, and chose not to make adaptations to any other school, therefore we had to wait untila decent human being agreed that he needed t be somehwere and took him. In respect of KS2 though, there is no full, as there is no offical limit to number of childremn as there is in KS1...they just couldn't be bothered. In our LA medical considerations and medical hardship are in theory considered, but after all the other categories.

application - sorry for all the typos

Not always about funding McHappy, as my ds had full one to one funding guaranteed for all KS2 years, and will be beyond as well, and still no school wanted him. They simply did not believe in inclusion.

Not all schools give siblings high priority - think it is 4th or 5th at dc school.

Also their school is not suitable for wheel chairs and due to it being a listed building and a sloping site would be very expensive to sort out. It is on the schools list of things they want to do, but because of the cost it is a long way down.

If a child with a wheel chair gained a place (because they lived in catchment) then school would hope someone in the LEA would find money at short notice. Otherwise it would have to loose TAs or some other drastic measure to find the money quickly.

Because the nursery building is modern and self contained a child in a wheel chair could cope their, but progress to KS1 would be much harder.

schoolsnightmare
but sibling rule was in place and still two of my four examples were refused entry at these schools - their first choice schools.
It was definitely the schools turning the children away.

Parents now doing two school runs etc to other local state schools.... within same authority who are still paying for additional needs.

I am looking at this that it is the heads of certain schools making the refusal against the parents wishes....

Every LA is supposed to idenitfy schools which they will invest in to ensure they meet the DDA, now equality Act 2010, requirements, just like every other business, facility or place of work has to, with access, toilets etc etc etc.....So if a school is not DDA compliant like the one jicky describes, there should be one very close in the same cluster of schools feeding the same secondary school which is.....that is the way it is supposed to work.