getting a statement for a child who is home educated

[bundaberg]

Hi all!

I wonder if anyone can advise me here. I'm considering taking my almost 9 year old out of school. He has high functioning autism.
If at some point I wanted him to go back into school how difficult would it be for me to get a statement? He doesn't have one at the moment but we were about to start the process off.
Unsure what the best course of action is!

Hi

Are you in England? If so, what I am going to say is quite biased. I'll tell you the factual bits first and then go on to my personal point of view.

The Westminster government is in the process of changing the special needs system. From September 2014 there won't be any new statements, they'll be called Education Health Care Plans. I have lots of information about this on my website which is called edyourself.

Children and young people who already have statements by September 2014 will be the last to be changed over to the new system.

So far so factual.

I personally believe that all other things being equal a child who qualifies for a statement would quite likely NOT qualify for a plan. Also the system for challenging aspects of the plan will be weaker (sorry, less adversarial) so the best security blanket is already to have a statement by September 2014.

Anecdotally there is a rush to get statements and a reluctance to commit to trying out the new plan (even with a promise that all the protections of the statement will still apply)

Having said that, the statement (and in future the EHC plan) might well not get you anything much in the school system anyway, more for example than you would get by having a formal diagnosis of HFA. At present a statement can be a shortcut to getting special arrangements in exams, but there are other routes to achieve this and it's a while till yours will want to do exams so it might change by then anyway, plus it's not a magic bullet because many exam centres turn down external candidates who need special arrangements.

If you decide to go ahead and get a statement you can request a statutory assessment (don't know how far you are down this path already) whether or not your child is a pupil in school, and you have the same rights to appeal as the parent of a school pupil. In other words, your child doesn't need to be in school for you to try and get a statement.

thanks :) yes I'm in England, so all relevant.

I just feel that right now his class teacher is not giving him what he needs. He needs one to one support in class to ensure he stops falling behind with his work. He can't get one to one without a statement, that's my main reason for wanting one.

my concern is that if I take him out now, but want him in school for secondary (in 2 years time) i will then struggle massively to get him a statement because I won't have the "proof" they want to show that he would not cope. So part of me thinks I should keep him in school until he has his statement. Then decide if we want to home ed.

Equally I see him getting unhappier at school and further behind and feel quite strongly that he would get on better at home.

Feels like I'm in an impossible situation!

I have a statement for a HE child with autism but I had it before he left school and have ensured it was maintained, jumping through the LA's hoops etc for the same reasons as you.

Does he have a diagnosis? How far along are you with the statement process at school?

Might I suggest you post this on the Special Needs - Children board, there is a lot of traffic there and some absolute experts in achieving statements etc, the HE thing is a bit of a red herring atm, you need to find out how to get the statement.

Oh and my ds is a different child since we began home educating, it was definitely the right choice for us .

the statement would have to be reviewed every year anyway and could be ceased on review at any point. all statements to be converted to plans by 2017.

The reason to get a statement for a child in school would be to see if the support you got from a statement was then put in place and whether it did make a difference.

It would be 6 months (min) to get the statement and then however long you gave it to decide whether or not the support was forthcoming and whether it made things better.

If he did have a statement there'd be a big review at the time of transition from primary to secondary where you couldn't predict what the LA would do (but lots of ways it could be bad)

Anecdotally those on the autistic spectrum who just get by at primary struggle more at secondary.

Sorry this isn't helping you to decide.

i am in the process of trying to change my ds school and get him into a special school. He is statemented. I asked an autism charity who are supporting me, what would happen if i removed him from school, and she said that they would love me. A statement only applies to schooling, and if i removed him from school, his statement would not apply anymore. Id have to start all over again if i wanted him to return to school at a later date.

Unless you see yourself homeschooling from now on, then id advise to keep him in the system while trying to get the support, or change his school to a different one

I think you've been wrongly advised Branleuse we still have our statement from when ds was at school 2 years ago and the only thing that changed is in the school section is "education otherwise". He still gets SALT and OT as well but not as much, which is fine as he doesn't seem to need it as much.

"Anecdotally those on the autistic spectrum who just get by at primary struggle more at secondary"

this is my big worry! I want to home ed right now because he is happy. But I am not sure if I want to/can do it long-term. In an ideal world I'd be able to get him a specialist placement for secondary, but I know that my chances are slim and he would definitely need a statement for that.

we were on the cusp of requesting statutory assessment but our situation is made slightly more complicated by the fact that his school may actually be closing so until Monday we can go no further with that

yes, he has a diagnosis!

I love his current school btw, and I do think that he has the potential to thrive there, but only given the right support and unfortuantely his teacher this year is awful :( and a year is a long tiem when you are 8/9 and unhappy

I applied for a statement this year for my son (HFA/ADHD) who has been home educated for five years - it was finalised in July. As my LA is a pathfinder authority, it is currently being converted to an EHC plan and that should be finalised any day now. Fiona was an enormous help with the application, as was my MP - I had made earlier enquiries when my son was still in school but always got knocked back (the need was always there, both his primary schools refused to admit the extent of his difficulties on paper).

The original reason for applying was to have a documented history of need to take forward to college applications and ensure he gets the support he needs - he is 15 so we're looking at placements now. I also wanted an official record of his needs so that if the worst happened and I suddenly needed a school place for him, he would be more likely to have the support he needed. I had no expectations of support from the LA whilst he is being home educated. However, since the statement was finalised and we have begun the EHC assessment, plans are underway to arrange some therapies for him and he may well get something even though I didn't expect it. I'm working on it.

It takes six months to go through a statutory assessment but from September 14 you won't be able to apply as they will no longer exist. As Fiona says, you will find it much harder to get an EHC plan than a statement, itself already a challenging process, so if you want a statement as a safety net in case you want him to return to school, you would need to write to your LA immediately.

Personally, I would go for it. You might find you never need the statement/EHC plan but it's a useful document to have in your pocket if you ever do. If you can get your request letter into the LA before Christmas you could spend some time over the holiday drafting your Parental Views element - depending on your child's personal presentation it could be quite long and complicated so it's worth setting time aside to get it right (it's a bit like doing your DLA form). If you leave it much longer you won't have the 26 weeks left for the assessment and you'll have missed your window.

If you go for it and want some help with phrasing your parental views from an HE perspective, give me a shout .

streaky thank you! that gives me hope

If I start the statementing process but remove him from school part-way through would it still all go through?

No reason why not. Plus, if you remove him because he's increasingly unable to cope in that environment, it could add power to your application that he needs more support than was being provided.

Btw, sorry I didn't reply last night - I rarely MN after 6pm .