EHCP and permanent exclusion

[SMO212]

My son is in year 7, EHCP and been permanently excluded.
He was in mainstream and I was trying to get a change of placement but the LA had not put the paperwork through in time and told me to wait. In which time he was PEX. I'm not appealing the PEX as it's pretty pointless, he lasted 10 weeks in Mainstream school.
Now the PEX has prompted a change of placement under section I. I have named a specialist, the LA are consulting on Parental preference. But they feel his needs can still be met in Mainstream and consulting with them.
Due to the PEX he is now educated outside of school and the LA have set him work online with a tutor online. Which obviously does not meet provision F. I also work full time and after next week I have zero childcare. I have complained to the director of children and suprise, nobody cares.
I have two questions with anyone that has been through this:
1.When the LA name a school that is not parental preference I have the right to appeal under SEN tribunal, this is currently a 9-12 month wait, is this triaged as more urgent as he is not in school? Also will the 'tutoring' remain in place whilst I appeal?
2.I have contacted every solicitor I possibly can to proceed with judicial review, can anyone recommend anyone that could take legal aid and has availability?
I actually have no idea what to do and I don't actually no how I'm going to keep my job. Anyone that's been through this experience and could share would be much appreciated, I can't find this situation online anywhere.O

Look up SEND IASSS in your area. They should be able to help.

To be permanently excluded, with an EHCP, he must have done something very serious?
Do you really want him in a mainstream school? The rise in EHCPs is putting a massive strain on everyone in education, so not surprised you are waiting for so long. It seems everyone is waiting for a ND assessment.

This happened to my son ..but LEA refused to consider another school
So we had permanent tutors at home
He wasn't allowed to be alone with the tutors,so every time they were in the house ,one of us had to be there as well.
It meant I couldn't work
If they name a mainstream school ,you have a chance of getting back to normal and keeping your job ..but he may find the same issues at the next school.
You could push for more support at mainstream
Going to tribunal for parents choice of education,was over a year's wait for us.
And he was out of school that whole time
It's a nightmare,I'm not going to lie to you .
Good luck

SOSSEN might be able to help with pre-action letter which is the stage before judicial review if the LA aren’t doing things as they should. LA’s can consult with as many schools as they like- there is nothing to stop you getting hold of those schools and explaining your concerns about them meeting his needs. LA’s have to go with parental preference unless they can evidence one of these as following

• the setting is unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or special educational needs (SEN) of your child or young person
• the attendance of your child or young person would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others, or
• the attendance of your child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

Ask then in writing to specify why they are not naming your parental preference and what is the evidence that this reason meets one of the above 3 reasons. IPSEA has a lot of template letters you can use to question the LA’s practice. Alternative provision has to stay in place whilst you appeal but you don’t have to be available to supervise that alternative provision- tell them from next week they are causing a child protection issue as he is too young to be at home unsupervised whilst you are at work so they need to sort something out- issue is it doesn’t have to be equivalent of full time school hours to be legal so might still leave you with a work issue. Children out of school do get prioritised for appeals in court; the issue you may have is if the LA name a school in a plan then technically they will have a school place so I don’t know if they would be prioritised can you phone the tribunal service and ask as they may be able to give advice.

Is there any chance that you could get a WFH job so your son could stay at home and just continue having tutors and sit the exams through his mainstream school?

I have been down this a similar route and have many friends in the same situation. Many specialist schools are overwhelmed with very high need kids and several of my friends children have had to be withdrawn because the specialist schools were unsafe.

The best option I know of is for the child to be educated at home with alternative provision (either book-based correspondance courses or tutors visiting the house). I think that having truck loads of online schooling at home is a terrible idea as he will be glued to a screen all the time and that's really not great for a developing child/teen. Having said that I do know a lot of kids do the screen-school and are happy with it, so it may be okay.

If there is any way that you could be at home with him, that is probably the best option.

That sounds really hard.

Thinking just about the question about your job, do you know about unpaid parental leave? You can take up to 18 weeks before your child gets to 18, usually up to 4 weeks per year. With a child with Sen needs this can be taken as days rather than full weeks.

So, as an example, if you could book holiday camps for holiday weeks. Then you and your partner use your holiday and unpaid parental leave to each have two days off per week then you could manage six months just trying to find childcare or work from home 1 day per week.

I work in schools and LAs are now telling us it is their policy that disabled young people must 'fail' and be pexed before they will consider special education. It's horribly unfair and abusive of children who are being put through a disruptive and in many cases terrifying experience in settings, but nonetheless the being put through behaviour sanctions and a completely alien and bewildering process for their distress. In the meantime, LAs will throw everything at fighting a PEX having directed a kid into a completely unsuitable setting and will push parents to go to IRP/tribunal. It's a cheap and cynical way of distracting parents for years at a time by making the school out to be the bad guy.

And then you have posters like the one above saying the kid 'must have done something really bad'.

At this point quite probably they were a profoundly autistic kid dumped in a huge secondary with no quiet spaces and who became overwhelmed. But if they are a risk to the safety of others around them and the school has no way to support them to be safe, schools have to consider permanent exclusion.

I agree with the poster above - contact local schools and cooperate with them on a true understanding of your child's needs so they can respond meaningfully to consultation. If you think mainstream will be a cycle of failure and disruption, hold firm. And if you have the resources to consider judicial review, fabulous. We need all of the case law we can get.

If LA name another mainstream school they will stop the tutor.
Ask for alternative provision outside the home eg PRU often these are small group and staff much more experienced in Sen. You are entitled to full time equivalent.
Ask for social care assessment for your child and yourself so you can work. You can ask for all professionals to meet eg social worker, ed psych, Sen
The tribunal will expedite appeals where child is out of school you can request this when you appeal.
Ask for all consultations to be copied to you and then speak to the schools direct.

This is really awful practice isn't it? My son's "placement failed". I had talked to the school endlessly about how he had PTSD and was going to have a nervous breakdown because of all the nastiness in the curriculum but they just kept pushing him until he snapped. It's been years out of school now and is still not recovered.

I can't understand why this isn't recognised as a form of abuse against children.

Why is it that safeguarding leads in schools think that this behaviour is somehow compatible with their safeguarding responsibilities?

Couldn't they at least tell the parents that this is the situation so we could rescue our kids before they are completely broken and thrown out?

You LA will probably try to consult with every available mainstream (because it is cheaper). When you find out find out what mainstreams your LA is consulting with I would call the school and speak to the SENco and tell them why their school is unsuitable and that you don’t want your child to attend. Hopefully this will prompt a can meet needs response from the school. The PEX should hopefully put a lot of mainstream schools off. Even if all mainstream schools respond that they can’t meet needs then this does not mean the LA won’t name it in section I (sadly). So I would prepare to be in for the long haul.

I used Watkins in Bristol for my sons apparel to SENDIST and I found them very good (but this was not for JR)

1. Tribunal wait times are more like 13-14months. They prioritise CYP who are out of education. This means not attending a setting and/or no package of support in place, which is not your child’s situation. Even when these cases are prioritised they are currently looking at 9-12months wait for a hearing.
2. Reconsider challenging the PEX
3. the tutoring may or may not remain in place. It depends what the la name in section I. It sounds likely that another mainstream will be named.
4. if you really want to JR the LA I would suggest contacting sossen but it’s not a quick solution and it’s not going to mean that your child will be educated somewhere other than at home while a more permanent solution is found.
5. contact your local IAS service. Which LA are you under?

Contact your MP mine was really good when the LEA said "stay mainstream for primary and we will definitely have a specialist secondary for him" then failed to find ANY school for him for year 7 all the mainstream secondary schools said no to him they couldn't meet need my mp was actually useful in pushing and shoving them into finding a space not local but its a good school and I got transport too

When we were consulted for a child with an EHCP, we didn’t find out until we had been directed to take him ( after explaining numerous times that we did not feel able to meet need) that he had been excluded from his previous school. He lasted 3 months with us before we had to exclude him again, for the safety of staff and pupils alike. It was only after this second exclusion that the local authority agreed to specialist provision. This was despite parents pleading for specialist provision from the outset.

Re judicial review- I don’t think you can pursue a judicial review until you have exhausted other options for appealing a decision - so in this case that would mean appealing the PEX.

Now I think I misunderstood- the research for a JR is because you think the LA will name a school that isn’t parental preference? As the consultation hasn’t finished yet it might be a bit premature to be looking into that. I think it’s unlikely JR will ‘jump’ the tribunal process.

He is severely autistic and ADHD, he was on the playground at break time and surrounded by a large group of year 9 students. They were ruffling his hair and then 3 pushed him against a fence and wouldn't let him leave. He shouted at them all and then pulled a pair of scissors out his pocket and waved it at them all to get then away from him.

I understand the safety concerns and I'm not appealing it. He's in the wrong environment.

I'm honestly so battered by this, I've non stopped cried. I'm looking at quitting my job and just pulling him from the education system. I am just so absolutely done with having to battle all the time. I think I'm getting depressed from it.

I've exhausted every single complaint I can possibly put in at this point. The MP, the Department of education. I've spoken to both SENCOS from the mainstreams and they are going to appeal as much as they can.

It's just putting him through it again goes against every instinct as a mother to protect.

Don't offer to home educate,just do it quietly with CGP books at home

The lea have a responsibility to educate your child ,they should of put tutors in ,or be talking about tutors .

Unfortunately both my boys had disastrous experiences at special schools
The schools just did their own thing with the lea letting them just get on with it.
So neither of mine lasted long in a special school ..but I think the school had been forced to take them ,and they had this policy that all children were on medication..mine are not ,and CAMHS had never suggested any medication.but the school pushed hard for medication before the start date ..I pushed back ,and the placement failed , because the school had not put anything in place that was on the EHCP for the start date ..so I think the school deliberately didn't do what was in the EHCP .
So one of mine has online school ,which we went to tribunal for now and the others EHCP has just ended

Appeal the pex with the school

lodge the ehcp appeal

at the same time lodge a disability discrimination claim for the pex

how has he achieved a pex in one term that's not elated to his disability

hes entitled to full time education

you need a pre action protocol letter before you can do JR.

Not true.

He had scissors in his pocket and threatened people. How can this be appealed against?

Yes the other kids shouldn’t have surrounded him but having a weapon can’t be excused under any circumstances

The school won't take our opinions into account

I agree, but the local authority are fighting the PEX to let him back in.

I have no say, essentially it will be cheaper for them for him to stay at that school..

Were you not offered a place in. PRU following the PEX? That’s the usual offer.

It’s not usual if you have an EHCP. PRUs cannot be named in section I

It’s still the LA’s short term setting for students following a PEX, before they move to a more suitable placement. I ran one and we had several children with EHCPs.