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?

The guidance has changed, but there are now so many children on school it's going to threaten the effect of lockdown. Also still loads of cars on the roads.
ITU are filling up. NHS are at a critical point. A thousand people registered dead today and we only locked down yesterday, its going to get much worse.

Please, if you can stay at home, if you can keep your children at home, please do.

@Jax57 - DS is doing a life skills course which is supposed to be 5 days a week but since September has been remote 2.5 days a week. Yes, it was a hard fight to get him on it! It is funded by the LEA.

From gov website. The funding formulas look a little more complicated than schools, granted.

Our LA is not responsible for any secondary schools or most primaries because either MATs or Academies so funding now comes directly from government by various pots e.g. encouraging healthy eating, cycling to school, IT budgets, LAs top up SEN that’s why most try to avoid giving EHCPs now or assessing needs.

@Xenia

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.

Again - you can have a court order, a ruling, you can fine the LA but if the staff are not available how exactly are you going to magic up this provision! It’s like when Ed balls set that ludicrous law about levels of child poverty as if making it illegal At a certain level would miraculously solve the problem

@lemonsandlimes123 can I ask your experience here? Do you work in a special school? I teach and I absolutely believe staff need to be kept safe, but there is also a need to keep vulnerable people safe and we play our part in that...

Haven’t read the full thread (sorry) but your daughter would be eligible - young carers qualify as vulnerable children under government guidelines.

I would say DS and DD are a lower risk than most seeing as they’ve already had Covid and all the evidence points to them being immune for at least 6 months and with no evidence that they would carry enough viral load, if they came into contact with a positive case, to infect anyone else. If they could what would be the point of the vaccine?

The point of keyworker school places is to allow keyworkers to go to work. It’s not for the benefit of the children. Everyone wants their kid to be in school at the moment but if you can have them at home you should.

[quote LaraCroftFridgeRaider]@Jax57 - DS is doing a life skills course which is supposed to be 5 days a week but since September has been remote 2.5 days a week. Yes, it was a hard fight to get him on it! It is funded by the LEA.[/quote]
Is his life skills course actually timetabled over 5 days - a BTEC level 1 is normally 3 days with the other two filled with ‘experience and citizenship’ or functional maths or English...that’s probably why you have now got 2.5 days over lockdown. If SLT or OT on EHCP ask for zoom lessons or therapy or alternatives like music/instrument lessons or FIIT App membership to help with boisterous behaviour etc

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.

The schools are closed.
There are limited spaces.
most of the staff are not teachers and are volunteering to do a job that is way above their pay scale and risk their own health as well as their families by mixing with so many people still - yet you think people should take legal action against the very schools you are asking to care for your children.

@perfect28 - siblings of disabled children are classed as young carers. I would find it very hard to resent them getting a place at school, especially if they were at risk of physical harm.

[quote Perfect28]@lemonsandlimes123 can I ask your experience here? Do you work in a special school? I teach and I absolutely believe staff need to be kept safe, but there is also a need to keep vulnerable people safe and we play our part in that...[/quote]
The best way I can put it is that I have very extensive experience on a personal and professional basis on both sides of the coin!

@toocold54 if they are not fulfilling their minimum duties then yes! Most schools are bending over backwards to support students, why should some be able to go 'actually no'. And if you support that then why doesn't every school do it, and close completely to all students?

[quote Perfect28]@lemonsandlimes123 can I ask your experience here? Do you work in a special school? I teach and I absolutely believe staff need to be kept safe, but there is also a need to keep vulnerable people safe and we play our part in that...[/quote]
I work in a secondary state school in SEN. All teachers are working from home engaging in a full normal timetable of live remote lessons. Our key worker/vulnerable children do their remote learning as they would at home but logging onto to live lessons from school computers in year group bubbles supervised by TAs not teachers. So possibly depending on staffing levels they may only have room for so many children plus even though you say you have had Covid you can catch it again. Break and lunch times are greatly reduced because of supervision and staffing levels.

Your sons ehcp is not relevant as this is about your daughters school. It comes down to demand for spaces and how many staff are available. Some staff will be shielding etc. My son has an ehcp for 20 hours but we are appealing that for the full 32.5. Anyway he will only be in school 2 days a week during lockdown despite him being covered for 3. This is because of the amount of key workers with no choice but to send to school. Your daughter has care options available at home so unless they have space she will not have priority. I get it sucks as in first lockdown we were mid ehcp appeal and he was doing no school work developed severe ocd and would not leave home or touch things his brother touched but we had to cope. Schools are doing the best they can in a crappy situation. I'm sure if they had space they might make an exception.

[quote Perfect28]@toocold54 if they are not fulfilling their minimum duties then yes! Most schools are bending over backwards to support students, why should some be able to go 'actually no'. And if you support that then why doesn't every school do it, and close completely to all students?[/quote]
Because all schools, especially, specialist provisions are different. They have different risks, different cohorts and different staff groups. Not to mention the variety of physical environments and the impact that can have. Yes thre are some schools mainstream and special that are not stepping up but there are also some that have no choice but to close fully. The point I have been trying to make is that it’s no good people going on about their rights and what they are entitled to, if the services aren’t available they aren’t available and no matter how angry people get those facts won’t change.

Really disgusted to see that disabilism is the last acceptable bigotry on mumsnet

@fortniteboysmum it’s not about making an exception. The OPs daughter meets the legal criteria to be considered vulnerable.

The school leaders have a responsibility to keep all staff, pupils and families safe. It is irresponsible to seek to send any pupil to school who does not absolutely need to be there because both parents are critical workers or in the case of a one parent family, the custodial parent is a critical worker. As others have said, most people have good reasons ranging from convenience to mental health issues for wanting their children in school, but none of those reasons trump the responsibility of all of us to stay at home and keep everyone safe.

@lemonsandlimes123 I disagree, there are always solutions if people are willing and creative enough. Leaving vulnerable children without any care is unacceptable and there will be comeuppance for those who make no attempt to fulfill legal duties. I strongly believe people in these situations who need help shouldn't just roll over without at least trying to get the support they deserve.

It feels really bizarre that hospitals are saying they can manage for about a week, the chief medical officer said we were 21 days from being overwhelmed and a thousand people died yesterday and people are still quibbling over getting their kids into schools. Can't we all just sit tight for now?

OP, you manged in the last lockdown, you will again. It's not ideal for any of us, but at least you don't have to try and work. (I'm a full time working parent of an SEN child and other children.)

It must be tough OP, it's not like schools have even closed, there's classes full at many schools.
So many people bending the rules or lying.

[quote Perfect28]@lemonsandlimes123 I disagree, there are always solutions if people are willing and creative enough. Leaving vulnerable children without any care is unacceptable and there will be comeuppance for those who make no attempt to fulfill legal duties. I strongly believe people in these situations who need help shouldn't just roll over without at least trying to get the support they deserve.[/quote]
Well then I ask you again. What is your ‘creative’ solution to open a school safely when there is insufficient staffing. Your solution needs to balance the needs of all members of the school community.

Needing a young carer place is not about ‘convenience’ FFS. What are people not getting? A vulnerable child place is for the child, not the parents