Can school insist she stays home?

[Oakmaiden]

I'm in tow minds about this, in honesty, and even if they can't insist I may well keep her home anyway.... However...

My daughter (year 11) has broken her ankle. She is on crutches and supposed to be weight bearing, but is still finding it very painful to put any weight on her ankle. Her school is very big and has lots of stairs - they have said they are only prepared to have her in for lessons where she is on the ground floor (which actually works out as the first 2 lessons each day, mostly - english and maths). I have to drop her off before lesson 1 and pick her up after lesson 2. This is awkward with working, but that is another thread, really...

Part of me is fairly content to do this - she finds using her crutches very tiring, and I am concerned about her going up and down the steep stairs all day, particularly when the corridors get crowded. I am also aware there might be issues in an emergency (such as fire alarms).

On the other hand - daughter is going out of her mind with boredom. She is a keen dancer and athlete, and obviously is completely out of action in those respects and is distraught about missing her dancing and the work she is going to have to do to get back to where she was. Her (obsessive?) focus on dancing has meant she has drifted away from her friends a fair bit in the past year or so, and now she is asking them to hang out with her they are all too busy. And she just wants to go back to school properly.

Are the school actually allowed to insist on shortened days for her? I haven't questioned it with them so far, as I can see the practical reasons why it is better for her, but on the other hand her mood is getting so low I am starting to think on balance she might be better at school...

This statutory guidance to school suggests that kids with medical conditions should not be routinely sent home. School should definitely have a policy.

The Statutory Guidance linked to applies to schools in England - the OP says that there is a link on their school's website to a Welsh Government document, so presumably the school is in Wales?

DD spent all of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 on crutches - Year’s 9 & 10. She was allowed to leave lessons 5 minutes early, with a friend to help with doors and was lent a lift key for as long as she needed.

She then had 4 weeks off last September/October following a knee operation - during that time her school signed her up for an online learning platform to enable her to keep up with core subjects. It also meant that as long as she did 4 hours a day on it she would get an attendance mark.

She would need a personal risk assessment regardless of how many hours a day she is in school, mostly to set out a plan in case of a fire alarm.

Sounds like an illegal exclusion to me. This is not acceptable. They should be making adjustments so that your daughter can attend normally. If you took legal action against them over their failure I would expect you to win.

If you did take legal action and win, I would expect the school to be ordered to accommodate your daughter so that she can attend full time. The school would also probably be ordered to pay for or provide additional tuition to make up for the missed lessons.

Do they not have lifts? Dd got a lift key and someone to help with her bag when she broke her ankle and had crutches

The school should have an access policy. It should be on their website and say something about how they are required to make reasonable efforts to ensure pupils with disabilities can access the school.

The school bit aside, having broken my ankle and not taken it easy, I'd say rest the thing and keep it raised. I didn't and I made it worse. Ended up having to stay on a sofa for three weeks instead of the airboot coming off (airboot instead of plaster as I have wonky blood that clots easily, so they tend not to put plasters on when I break something).

If her cast allows, look at knee scooters (walkers) they dramatically increase mobility, my son had one and carried his crutches strapped onto the side of his backpack, when he got to the stairs, he would park the scooter and zoom up as he had plenty of energy still.

This is completely wrong. If your dd can’t manage the stairs then she should be allowed to stay in a classroom on the ground floor and have her work brought to her. Or she could leave lessons 5 minutes early (to avoid the crowds) and have a couple of teachers help her up and down the stairs. Or even have the class on the higher floors swap temporarily. It’s utterly ridiculous to send a child home just because they’re on crutches. I’d ask to speak to the head teacher tomorrow and say that the school should not be forcing your dd out of education due to her being injured and she’s being discriminated against. Definitely mention the good point that someone else said, what would they do if a child in a wheelchair joined the school? Send them home for being disabled?

She's year 11 - no way can she afford to miss GCSE classes. This is a crucial time for her.

All reduced timetables must be logged with the local authority. They should also require your signature. Not all schools follow the guidance, but they can't insist, it is up to you to consent. At year 11, if you and your daughter consider that she is well enough to learn, school need to sort something so that gets the education she is entitled to (legally it is your decision but at year 11 Id be giving the child's opinion a lot of weight)

As others have said, we would have the student on crutches a buddy to help, they'd leave early, go to ground floor lessons and a case by case basis would determine upper floor lessons depending on which blocks have lifts and nature of the lessons. Eg. A student might leave time and do the stairs to practical science, but might not do it for history. In lessons they aren't in, they'd work in the support base and work would be sent down.

There's no reason for them to be off school. School are out of order here.

Definitely mention the good point that someone else said, what would they do if a child in a wheelchair joined the school? Send them home for being disabled?
That's not comparable. A disabled student would have a medical needs plan and risk assessment. School would know in advance and would look at classes and rooming and that would be factored into timetabling to ensure all rooms are accessible for the student. They might also look at additional staffing if needed.

Totally not the same as the revolving door of students on crutches.

Our DS was on crutches last year for 8 weeks. We hired him a wheelchair as it's almost a mile from the station to his school, too far on crutches.
His friends pushed him to and from the station and to any lessons that were far from each other.
School doesn't have a lift so his whole classes were switched to downstairs rooms.
Friends carried his lunch tray for him. He was even allowed to do PE by being the ref or linesman!