School refusing to allow DC to attend!

[LaraCroftFridgeRaider]

How I can take this further?

During the last lockdown, DD’s school were very strict on only allowing DC to attend where BOTH parents were key workers (or a single parent key worker).

DH is a keyworker but I am a SAHM so DD stayed at home. I also have a teenage DS with ASD and a learning disability who I am the registered carer of. His behaviour during the last lockdown was pretty difficult to manage at times and I feel it had a bad impact on DD. I don’t want her to be at home 24/7 with no respite from DS’s outbursts this time which is I want her to go to school. The whole family has already had COVID so I’m not worried about that. DS’s special college has completely shut down again.

I saw today that the guidance has changed to only parent needing to be a keyworker so I contacted the school to inform that DD needed a place but they are insisting that they will only be admitting DC who were eligible to attend during the last lockdown and the one parent change is only guidance!

AIBU to think they have to allow DD to attend?

@RockPaperScissorsLizardSpock73 I've just read through another similar thread and the responses on there are horrific too! Telling the OP she is entitled. I would never wish having to deal with some of the things we have to deal with or the amount of mental and physical capacity it takes to live like this 24/7 on my worst enemy!

If Ds has an EHCP then the LA must make reasonable endeavour to fulfill his access to education - get onto them to see how they will achieve this.

Oops - meant to say try talking to the SENCo at your DD's school - they can advise more re young carers and vulnerability.

@Penguinlost I don't think that's particularly fair. Clearly the impact on siblings will be significant. That doesn't mean they are 'carers' though.

Check the guidance and speak to your MP.

And I’d hazard a guess the pandemic will be prolonged by people being able to pop in to garden centres, the range, dry cleaners, vaping shops also.
Education should’ve been the last thing to be disrupted.

These threads are why I am angry with the ECHP = school place. Most people do not believe a thing the government says so why are the believing this shit. Specialist provision is already overcrowded and overstretched so the idea that they will all be fully open universally is small.

@Perfect28 EHCP plans may go up to age of 25 years if there is a need for the young person to stay in education. They do not roll over continuously, it’s about progression

Good lord, can you knock it off for 5 minutes?! The OP already stated they all had covid anyway

It doesn’t matter if they’ve had COVID already or not.

There’s only so many places that are available - any more than these numbers would mean that proper social distancing etc cannot be maintained.
A list in order of priority of need would have been produced and those at the top would have got the places. If someone drops out it will go to the next person down the list.

@motherextrordonaire FE colleges are still LA funded. Education or training is mandatory until age 18 and EHC plans still apply up to age 25 (if necessary)

OP I know you’re not a single parent but I’m this case you could probably bubble up with a parent so your DD could go there during the day or a childminder if that’s not possible.

@MummytoCSJH I'm horrified by what I have read. It's a complete shit show trying to manage someone with asd at the best of times but this past 12 months has been awful. No services want to know. Carers and sen families have been thrown under the bus. I'm appalled that some think it's acceptable for a child to be left with a sibling who is aggressive and expect the mum to suck it up. They want to try it for a day and then I'm sure they would feel differently. It's almost akin to being in a domestic violence relationship but with your child. It's exhausting at the best of times.

@Thewinterofdiscontent - DS has no problem with wearing a mask or SD due to me spending a lot of time over the summer getting him used to it. The SD isn’t a problem anyway due to his social anxiety! The college staff said it wasn’t necessary in class when he was quite happy to wear it then lo and behold he caught it, probably from the 3 staff members who came down with it and brought it home to us. There was no SD from staff either when we did his induction. The staff were a higher risk to him than him to them!

clearly if they don't have staff then they can't, but I would be extremely surprised if anywhere had literally zero staff willing to work. Is this your experience? Even if staff levels were low they could still offer some provision for some students, respite care for example.

It’s not about zero staff it’s about a safe number to be able to open and offer some sort of provision. In a special school the minimum number of staff to just get the doors open may be quite high and therefore there don’t need to be that many staff unavailable for it to make opening impossible

First part is meant to be quotation - second part is reponse

@grandfromagerie

Can you get your child that goes to a mainstream school on the basis of them being a "young carer" and due to them having a disabled sibling?

Yes this is what I was going to say. Your dd, with a violent disabled sibling at home, should be classed under vulnerable. If needed you can refer yourself to social services to ask for help - most will be more than happy to write a letter to school.

[quote Perfect28]@Penguinlost I don't think that's particularly fair. Clearly the impact on siblings will be significant. That doesn't mean they are 'carers' though. [/quote]
The OP's son attends a special school. I'd be suprised in these circumstances that a sibling would not be considered a young carer, given the level of need to access special school provision.

From the NHS website "if you're a young carer you probably look after one of your parents or care for a brother or sister. You may do extra jobs in and around the home, such as cooking, cleaning or helping someone get dressed and move around.You may also give a lot of physical help to a brother or sister who's disabled or ill. Along with doing things to help your brother or sister, you may be giving them and your parents emotional support, too."

@lemonsandlimes123 They do not need to necessarily 'open as usual' but it isn't all or nothing. Some staff may be shielding but equally some parents will want students home. They should assess safe ratios and see what they can offer, even if that is only part time respite care. This is exactly what happened last time in my DH's special needs school. There is absolutely no reason or excuse for a school to shut its doors and for senior leaders to not pick up the phone.

@Perfect28 has hit the nail on the head there. If there was a covid outbreak amongst staff the. Fair enough but otherwise I couldn’t imagine any college really not be able to offer anything to any of their children.

[quote Perfect28]@motherextrordonaire FE colleges are still LA funded. Education or training is mandatory until age 18 and EHC plans still apply up to age 25 (if necessary) [/quote]
FE colleges are not LA funded. All post 16 courses are 15 hours taught time per week and funded by government dependent on being retained and finishing the course. At 16 they do not have to be in education until 18 - they could be working or doing an apprenticeship. LAs will try to push EHCP holders into apprenticeships rather than life skills at colleges because they don’t cover the full 5 days at college and for 2 days a week they try to get them into volunteering roles to give a full timetable. In theory they continue until 25 but very few do in practice and normally mean a tribunal somewhere done the line...

@Penguinlost I think in this case it really depends what the home life is like. She may well be helping, or mum and dad may be shielding her from that. I don't think we can really say one way or the other.

Sadly schools are needing to prioritise which children they can accept as there is a huge increase in demand in many schools for key worker places when compared with first lockdown. If they admit too many, the lockdown just won’t work and they risk being unable to continue. They are trying to keep everyone safe - so please be kind everyone. Very sympathetic though to your situation. I would have thought your son should be eligible for some level of ongoing support if he has an EHCP. Good luck.

If there are enough cases it may be necessary to bring a group legal action to ensure children of critical/key workers are taken in by schools.

@jax57 thanks, I did say education or training. Training includes apprenticeships. I don't understand your point about funding, the majority of funding comes from the government via the Lea, no?

[quote Perfect28]@lemonsandlimes123 They do not need to necessarily 'open as usual' but it isn't all or nothing. Some staff may be shielding but equally some parents will want students home. They should assess safe ratios and see what they can offer, even if that is only part time respite care. This is exactly what happened last time in my DH's special needs school. There is absolutely no reason or excuse for a school to shut its doors and for senior leaders to not pick up the phone. [/quote]
There are no ‘safe’ ratios. There is always a level of risk. Let’s say there need to be a minimum of 6 staff in a school in order for it to open for 2 pupils - it cannot possibly be right to put 6 people at risk for the sake of respite for 2 pupils. Yes it would seem worth it to the family of those 2 pupils but the other 6 families of the staff members not so much. There isn’t a hierarchy of duty of care. The schools duty of care to its staff is no less than it is to it’s pupils. That is something that some parents struggle to accept