This is a shit situation but AIBU that the parents need to be held accountable for their son being out of education?

[jinglejuicing]

Didn’t get school of choice, has two severely disabled brothers that he helps care for. Recent loses in the family. This boy needs to be in school for stability. What do the parents expect the council to do?

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/ealing-council-school-attendance-prosecution-33941041?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAR7kuxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe4QW9GvFO5aeg4_yefrE0HE48rr2oF-eGK0s4bbIxG8QznjniGq2GxQct5ZA_aem_rqzSN5VJLJcEEoFt3tfLgg#Echobox=1778837220

Tbh though with 2 asd siblings he probably has a very high chance of also having asd. Which could be mild but still impact ability to make new friends. Also possibly showing in mum or both parents re the rigid behaviour of choosing no school vs a leas ideal one. And taking literally re home schooling ao not doing any work with him.

also shes pretty illogical re the siblings as pp says most kids dont have an older one etc.

I dont think it would take 2 parents to get 2 kids (1 older than 12) and a 10yo on sen transport. Im sure 1 parent could drive him.

But my mildly asd kid took a year to be able to walk 1 short road alone to school bus (age 11 to 12) and wouldnt be able to get a public bus…

A lot of asd people can get stuck on the this isnt the right school and would prefer to wait for one.

But i also think there is becoming a very demand nature from kids with sen. (Im thinking re the fast passes for theme parks..)

Probably because we are always having to sort things for the kids. My kid having asd and adhd made no difference on appeal.
And not getting the school at that point has had a detrimental lasting impact (dc has been suicidal for over a year now)

Anyway the biggest issue—-
why are some schools so much more crap that you feel the need to choose. AND why are so many kid finding it hard now to make new friends at schools.?

Sorry wrong thread

On the subject of his journey to school perhaps he also has some less severe needs which his parents didn’t want to share with a news outlet.

That was my instinct. It certainly wouldn't be unlikely given the prevalence of autism within siblings sets.

What really bugs me is the fact that the media are giving this airtime. They are inflating the situation deliberately to get the clicks. And in the meantime this lad is missing out. They should be ashamed.

The media interest just adds fuel to a non-fire and encourages the parents to continue their unfounded protest ... and feeds their desire for the limelight with no thought to the boy's best interests.

The article says the school offered is a similar distance to the one he wants. So he’d have to travel anyway.
I don’t know why the media are reporting so supporting this.

The article mentions that the parents think he’d be safer travelling to the school they want, as he’d be travelling with his friends who go there. I don’t know that part of London well, so not sure whether that’s because the streets are actually that dangerous or because maybe he has some degree of SEN and they don’t think he can travel alone yet.

It’s perfectly safe. No more dangerous than any other part of a big city like London. It doesn’t specify he has SEN, believe me I am certain those parents would highlight this if so. They’re basically annoyed because he didn’t get to go to the same school as his mates. This happens across the country to lots of children and they get on with it. He’d have made new friends now if his parents weren’t such fucking idiots. Most kids don’t hang around with their primary friends throughout secondary anyway.

Because apart from there being no mention of them actually using the appeal process and failing in 2025: while their parenting situation with two seriously SEN kids is unfortunate, William Perkins school has very set criteria and is seriously over subscribed every year. It's well known in and even out of the area.
They have a specific criteria, expectations, and standards, equally well known.

WP is a victim of good standards, and can't now fully cover the catchment it was set up to reach, and I shouldn't think the family are in it or they'd be adding it to their list of reasons.

Every year 70 to 100 children for whom it's their nearest school and put it as first choice, can't be accommodated because there's more living closer to it or with a sibling there, or they are a LAC.
If WP went further over PAN for this lad without being ordered to, they could expect to be taken to court by all those parents who lost out.(plenty of parents with very good cases already fail)

The family's been dealt a tough hand in life, but don't appear to have done anything, just said 'give us a place there, or the kid gets no education' and we'll leave him with nothing until you do.
OR:
they only put WP down, didn't get in, didn't bother looking elsewhere, ignored two education notices and fines that are now doubled, and now they've been hit with an education order for him to attend a different specific school.
So are trying to justify themselves as to why he's had nothing for nine months and they expect Ealing LEA to now give a direction notice for WP to be placed outside the normal age range so he can catch up, under 'social grounds affected his education.'

It's the worst of most worlds if that's the game and I doubt WP would accept it.

Yes if you agree to EHE the LEA has no further obligation to find a school for you, unless your education plan fails and they have to step in..
That's because it is the decision to Electively Home Educate. Electively meaning do something by choice, voluntarily, or as an option rather than out of necessity or due to an emergency.

A parent however can do what I did originally when back footed into it, (though we are now happily EHE) which is shout loudly 'I'm Home educating, but not Electively' and take the LA to court.

But the parents don't seem to have any legal case here, just a preference for WP, a sad situation with two siblings, and a very, very, flimsy excuse for why they've continued to provide the lad with nothing, for nine months.

The Northolt area is generally no better or worse than many.
If he had that degree of SEN, it would be a DLA care component and mobility claim argument, and school transport arguments in the mix, as well as the arguments back of how safe/reliable trying to make other unrelated, unsupervised, children become young carers is .

But poverty and lack of aspiration isn't limited to London. If kids in rural Powys or Cornwall or the Scottish Highlands thought it was too middle class to get a bus to school, 95% of them wouldn't get an education!

Not to mention the fact that I think in this case it is highly unlikely he needs to take any transport to school and the alternative schools he's been offered aren't within walking distance.

I accept this family has had a lot of shit luck. But imho it's possible to both sympathise with them for that whilst also judging them for not doing the best for their child in the circumstances. Their son probably already has a lot of disruption and stress given his brothers' significant additional needs. The best thing for him would be to be in a structured environment with the opportunity to learn and socialise with other kids for 7 hours a day. Not sitting at home falling further behind every day because his parents are sticking to their guns about a preferred school and have (willfully or innocently) completely misinterpreted the council's advice about homeschooling.

From the article, 30% of the applicants to the preferred school instead will have to go to the other two schools he's been offered. I don't really see why his personal family circumstances place him above any of the rest of those kids.