AIBU to consider this as a last chance for my child? re - crowd funding and specialist schooling

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I have been around the mumsnet world since 2010!

I have name changed for this as this could be very outing but at this point we need all the advice we can get!

My eldest son is almost 11 and in the last year of primary, he is diagnosed with severe dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, low working memory and under assessment for high functioning ASD.

He has struggled so much all his academic life and is currently 4 years behind in English and 3 years behind in maths.

we have been fighting for 5 years for help for him and he has been failed at every turn and finally this year in year 6 at school he was awarded an EHCP plan and this is going in to the school now, but it feels like to little to late he has lost his primary school education time.

last year we got in touch with a specialist dyslexia school and they offered to asses our son and then invited him down for a trial week last October.

The trial was amazing my son came out of the school that first day and said "mummy they are all like me" "they get it" i just sobbed! and even now the memory of that moment makes me cry and it is the main reason why i cannot get this school out of my mind.

This school work on a completely different basis that normal schools they use a different approach and it worked so well for my son and after 7 years of using the normal phonics approach to learning i think a new approach is best as the old one had not worked for him!

Now this specialist school is private they take EHCP plans and use them to pay the fees, now my sons EHCP while funded to £7000 at year no where meets the schools £5000 a term fees (rising to £6000 as they get older).

So we are stuck i am retired on ill health grounds from the NHS and get a small pension, my husband is my carer so we have no available funds to meet those sort of costs. our families do not have this kind of money though i am sure they would help all they could just no one has 1000s laying about!

my son had got in to a good secondary school on the basis of his EHCP but he will have to be separated from all hi peers separate lessons and support as he will be a key stage 1 child working at a year 2 level in a key stage 3 environment

Yet my heart and mind cannot let go that i need to give my son this chance to change is life i need to know i have done everything i possibly can to help him succeed.

so last night while lying awake and stressing again i thought about people who crowd fund or do just giving or go fund me, i googled and saw crowd funding for specialist equipment, charities, cars, homes and even holidays!!

and i though why not why not us to?

so would i be mental to attempt this??

the total cost of his secondary education would be around £84000 taking off the years of his EHCP funding this would reduce this amount to around £45000.

so a £45000 target

when i think that is just 45000 people giving £1 or 90000 giving 50p i would get on my knees and beg everyone of these 90000 to help change my child's life.

so the main question is, is this too grabby? would you do this, should we put ourselves out there for this? and probably some abuse that would come with it??

we don't know what to do?

but we see our son struggle every day and i want to be able to look him in the face when he is older and say i tried everything

Are you very sure of your figures?
In torn... I think you'll get told not to but tbh this is the sort of crowd funding I would support (morally and financially)

thanks for your reply

the figures need settling with the school but average around £5000 a term for the first 2 years then £6000 for the last 3 years

this is the £84000

my sons current EHCP gives him £7700 funding per year at the moment to i just totalled this up for 5 years and took it off the £84000

which left £45500

Can the school give you any ideas of how to afford this? Perhaps a nursery or grants available to help top up?

Put up a link! Its more worthy than a lot of crowd funding ideas so why not?

there are no grants any more, the other children are funded privately or fully by there own EHCP funds

we have appealed the funding amount awarded to our son and we are not able to increase his funding, so we are having to look at funding ourselves and to be honest we just said this was not possible

like i said i only thought of this option last night and wanted to get other opinions of it! my DH said ask mumsnet what they would do! so here i am

thank you jobbie!! but i have not set up any form of crowd funding at this time

i just wanted to see what other people would do and what they thought

You need to ask for this setting at the next review of your sons's EHCP (or call an emergency review as the clock is ticking). The local authority will not like paying for it but if this is the only school that meets needs then they should pay for it whether independent or not. You might have to appeal but if you don't ask you will certainly not get.

the difficulty is also that the school is a different local authority to us we would be moving hundreds of miles away but i am willing to do this for my child.

the schools local authority have stated will offer nothing but honouring the EHCP put in place in our local area

The EHCP is designed to meet your son's needs and in the most appropriate setting to his needs. The sum your DS is allocated is based on meeting those needs. The most appropriate school needs to named (obviously the LA needs to be making good use of funds) can you get the school your DS needs named? My son is funded at an independent specialist school. He has similar needs to yours. The LA pay for it.

Why not seek to have the school named in the EHC plan - if he needs a specialist dyslexia school (and it sounds like he does with that list of diagnoses), then legally that is what he is entitled to and the LA pays the fees. I've known parents, who have got a specialist school for DC by themselves (although sometimes with an appeal to the tribunal, which they did themselves)!

Ask SOS!SEN or IPSEA for advice.

thank you oneineight

i wish i could but i can not ask for this school to be taken in to consideration as we do not currently live in that area

they did include the schools full report on his trial week in a section of the plan but they are not allowed to name it

Honestly you can. ds1 goes to a specialist school fifty miles away so well out of borough. Infact all independents are considered out of borough schools whether in borough or not..

I'm really sorry to say this, but EHCP funding doesn't usually work that way for private schools. The usual situation is either that if there is no other school that will meet your child's needs, the LA should fund all the costs of him going to that school - but you have to fight hard to prove that only that school can meet his needs.

You can choose to send him to that school even if the LA has an alternative that meets his needs, but then you are probably going to have to pay all the fees.

I am not aware of a scenario where parents are allowed to take the EHCP money and 'top it up' - am so sorry but just don't think it works like that.

I don't really know what to advise about the crowdfunding option, but I would definitely advise talking to an organisation like IPSEA (www.ipsea.org.uk/) about where you stand. The SN chat board has a number of posters with a lot of experience of getting the right school for their children too. Best of luck, and hope you do find the school that is right for him.

thank you checklist

but i even get the schools local athgority to review his plan we would have to move right now to that area

in moving i would have to register my son in a local school NOT the private school as we would not be allowed to

in conversations with the local authority they state that full funding for the private school is not given just a top up like using the amout we have

so i could move my whole family (we have 2 other children) for nothing as he would not get in anyway as we do not have the funds

thank you theforgetful cat

oh dear that would mean £84000 then

its impossible

DD was in an out of county independent specialist school with lots of children like DC, by the sound of it! As for LAs, don't take any notice of what they say they will offer - these are usually local policies. It's like me saying my own personal rule is that I can drive at 50 mph, even in 30 mph zones.

What counts is what the law says!

Your DS sounds similar to mine and I'd sell my soul to give him accessible, tailored education. Go for it. It's such a shame the state system lets down children like ours and trying to plug the gaps and maintain their resilience is a hard task. See if there are any charitable grants you can apply for too to go towards his school fees, and maybe throw in some fundraising events. Good luck!

we live 110miles away from the school area

we have no chance to get my son in under the local authority unless we move now, but like i said at the cost of him not getting in at all if the local authority do not agree

they are already unhelpful on the phone stating that there local schools are dirreft to ours and have more provision so he would be better placed in a standard ssecondary school

also they said that because we had accepted OUR local authritys EHCP plan funding that why would they look at increasing it? we obviously agree its enough!

There are kids fully funded (as boarders) at DS's school who are out of area. It's not impossible. But I'm not going to lie, you'll have to be a Boadicea of a mother as it's likely to be a battle. Most had to get solicitors involved and went to tribunal. My son goes daily and I didn't have to go to tribunal but its not close by and I spend three hours in the car each day doing school run as the deal was they won't fund transport but do pay the fees. Fortunately I'm self employed and can work around it.

If you go down the crowdfunding route and raise an amount of money but not enough to cover the full cost of his schooling (which I would imagine is the most likely outcome) then where do you go from there?

I think to need to really think this through

i am so sorry i am emotional and it has affected my ability to type!

OneinEight being one of the posters I was thinking of!

Yes, you absolutely can ask for that school to be named. You can ask for any school to be named and the LA are obliged to consult with that school. They then have to name it unless your child going to that school interferes with 'the efficient use of resources' or 'the efficient education of others'. If the LA have an alternative school that they think meets your DS' needs and is cheaper then they will refuse to name the school because it interferes with 'the efficient use of resources'. They aren't obliged to name a school which is the best option, just one that will meet your DS' needs adequately - so as a parent you have to work hard to show that no other school can meet your DS' needs.

Your LA may well have a policy to try and place all children within the borough and in LA schools - mine does - but that isn't the same as 'not allowed' to name schools out of borough.

So probably they will refuse to name the school because they have a cheaper alternative that meets needs, but you can then consider appealing to tribunal. Obviously I'd need to know a lot more about your DS and the options on offer to know whether you'd be likely to win, but you could start by getting advice from IPSEA. Advice from a solicitor might also be worth considering, and would be cheaper than £84k!

Lots of independents offer bursuries - have you asked?

any money raised would go towards his education be it the private school or if only a small amount was raised then specialist tutoring at home, further education or even to a dyslexia charity