To think this is clear disability discrimination?

[BoomShakALakaa]

DS has SN and we are trying to get him a college placement for September in a specialist college. He has an EHCP.

Found a college that ticks all the boxes but they say they are not suitable for him due to DS having a mild learning disability. They say he will be too slow and hold up the rest of the (small class) which will be detrimental to him and other students. No reasonable adjustments can be made.

Obviously this is a college but a school couldn’t get away with saying that could they?

They actually initially said they could offer a place but later said they missed that DS has a learning disability!

Primary diagnosis for admission is social, emotional and mental health needs and it is also an autism specialist provision which are DS’s main SENs.

Other colleges cater for more severe learning disabilities and don’t have the mental health support specialism.

There can be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over sixth form admissions for students with SEN.

My school had a specialist sixth form for students with specific forms of SEN. The people who ran it were under constant pressure from management to take students who really really weren't suitable for what they offered.

Specialist SEN sixth forms and colleges usually have a very bespoke programme. It's often focused tightly on students with a very specific set of needs.

The problem is (as you are finding...) when your child doesn't easily fit into any of the provision that is available.

What are your other options? If he has an EHCP he is presumably funded for more years - could he go to the one for students with a learning disability and aim to move on to this one?

OP I know how hard it is to get a child with learning disabilities into a college. I spent a lot of my Foster Son's Year 11 researching colleges that might accommodate his needs. He'd been to a special secondary school. Did your DC go to a special secondary school or a mainstream? Anyway I found a college that not only took my FS on but have been absolutely fantastic with him. They explained to him he couldn't go straight on to the course he wanted immediately because he didn't meet entry requirements but they put him on a BTEC Level 2 course in the same subject and promised him if he passed that course he could progress on to the course he originally wanted. They allocated him a 1-1 personal teaching assistant for every lesson he is in and also 3 hours additional time with a 1-1 on Wednesday afternoon in their learning hub. Last year FS passed the Level 2 course and is now on the Level 3 course progressing well and still has the 1-1 for all of his lessons. My point is there are wonderful colleges out there that will go above and beyond to help children with SEN. The college you found doesn't sound very obliging or caring to me. If they say they can't accommodate him look for an alternative that can. If you force him in under resistance they won't work with you or go the extra mile for him. They must know what their resources are and if they can't give your DS enough resources he won't keep up and it is very traumatic for a child with SEN to fail so really you want to avoid that at all costs. To get my FS the best college for him last year I drove him 49 miles to college and return home in the morning then another 49 miles to collect him and return home 4 times each week. This year it's slightly better as we only have to travel the 49 miles x 2 one day a week and the other days it's only 40 miles twice daily as on a different campus some day's. It is tiring and restricts my day a lot in terms of what else I can do as between 4-5 hours spent driving him each day, but FS education must come first. He has the rest of this academic year and all next year to do so I've made that commitment to drive him because there is no college suitable for him who can accommodate his needs closer. He can't use public transport. Could your DS use public transport and go further afield?

if the college remit is to provide for SEN students rather than SEND students then they are within their rights to refuse. have you checked through their criteria against your sons EHCP? have you talked it through with his current Learning support staff as they should be aware of what steps similar students have taken?

Forgot to state the college my FS goes to is a mainstream college and he has a moderate cognitive learning disability as well as development delays, anxiety and FAS and they have been really amazing with FS. Have you looked at what mainstream colleges can offer your DS? I can tell you FS's mainstream college has been far better than his special secondary which held him back.

I don’t think it is as simple as they are refusing simply as he has a disability; they are refusing as they feel that disability means he will be unable to do the course in a a timely manner and require support they cannot provide, and it will impact the other students.

this seems fair, you wouldn’t wish him doing something he cannot keep up with, surely and if they cannot provide the more individual teaching provision required then it’s not realistic for him to do it. ?

My eldest has ASD but is prime overarching need is around his mental health hence most ASD colleges being a bad fit and refusing to have him, local moderate learning difficulty colleges could not occupy him and had grave concerns about his complex behavioural needs from MH so refused to consider, social services would only agree to fund secure accommodation in place of a college and I had to fight tooth and nail for two years with the help of CAMHS to secure health funding for one of a handful of places able to stand a snowballs chance in hell to meet his educational, health and social needs. It was a horrible process then and it appears to be even worse now with extremely limited funding and an attitude that every child can cope in a mainstream setting with just a bit of support. (IMHO that has far more to do with saving money than supporting kids with significant extra needs to thrive.)

IPSEA are pretty good and may be able to help you get his ECHP re evaluated to reflect his current prime needs. That may help some.

They have to actually look into it and provide reasons why they can’t make adjustments- they can’t just say no and expect that to stand.

If this is a SEN specialist college then it is not as simple as reasonable adjustments.

SEN specialist colleges are not mainstream schools. They usually have entrance criteria that run along lines of

Is blind
Is deaf
Has an ASD diagnosis.

In other words they all take disabled students but they specialise in the nature of the disability. It is not discrimination for a college for blind students to refuse to take a deaf student who can see. The student should go to the college for deaf students.

Students with ASD who also have other needs can find it difficult to find a specialised school or college to take them, as often the ASD college feels they cannot meet the other need, and the other need (learning disability) college feels they cannot meet the ASD need.

For obvious reasons it's better for the colleges to specialise in a particular kind of disability. In the same way that hospitals have different departments for different things

The child is entitled to an education. If he wants to be in mainstream (and many FE colleges do run skills for life/entry level type courses) then reasonable adjustments might apply.

He meets the criteria for admission. They take predominantly ASD students with MH issues arising from that. They also state they take students with generalised learning difficulties but have made it clear than they they won’t take DS due to his mild learning disability. I have an email stating that. They tried to argue that they’d need to build an additional classroom to teach him on his own - isolate him!

His EHCP states a specialist college (not mainstream) with expertise in ASD and SEMH must be named which this college is.