EBSA

[Realisation14]

Anyone home educated due to EBSA? My son wants to go to school, and go "back to normal" as he calls it but as a results of events in 2024 he now has PTSD and anxiety, he's with CAHM'S and slowly recieving a mix of standard therapy and EMDR but he cannot cope in school. He's on a reduced time table, has a 1-1 (autism diagnosis) and they school have put in so many provisions for him but he's barely managing 2-3hrs a day and today couldn't go in at all. Last term he had all of February off, all of April and all of May where he was still registered and I was doing work from home packs with him provided by the school. At what stage did you just give up and change to home education despite it not being your child's wish or yours tbh.

From a very deflated mum who has very little fight left in her after the last 18 months.

If you don’t want to EHE, and personally in your situation I wouldn’t, there are other options.

Does DS have an EHCP? If so, what provision, including therapies, is in F? Have you requested an early review? Have you considered other types of schools? If it is inappropriate for provision to be made in a school, have you considered EOTAS/EOTIS. If DS doesn’t already have an EHCP, has an EHCNA been requested?

If DS is unable to attend school, is alternative provision in place? This doesn’t have to be traditional academic work if that isn’t suitable. Work sent home by the school doesn’t not relieve the LA of their duty to provide education.

Yes.

my DD was 16 and in the first year of a levels.

she basically took a year off and then we started again.
sometimes you have to prioritise the mental health.

Sorry I should have mentioned we're in Northern Ireland, he has a statement which is the equivalent of the ehcp in England and we don't seem to have alternative provisions here that I'm aware of with our education authority which is in a bit of a crisis where SEN children&placements are concerned.

Have you requested an early review of the Statement? DS needs more support in the Statement.

The EA still has a duty to ensure DC unable to attend school receive a full-time education. Alternative provision does exist in NI. AP isn’t always provided via a formal AP setting. There are other options.

Have a look at/contact SENAC if you haven't already.

Do you know what the alternative provisions are in northern Ireland by any chance? I appreciate your response. I'm going to check out senac now thanks.

Alternative provision doesn’t have to be at a formal alternative provision setting. For example, it can be tuition (doesn’t have to be academic tuition or even tuition in the traditional sense at all) or mentoring at home, in the community, online, at a church hall, rented office space or somewhere else suitable. Gaming alternative provision via someone like Mindjam is possible. Animal-assisted learning or animal-assisted therapy can be possible, e.g. someone I know in NI got funding for therapy via Wee Critters (or maybe We Critters, I can't remember).

And EOTAS via the Statement is also possible too. These packages are bespoke to the individual and the possibilities are endless. Tuition (academic or otherwise), music/drama/art/chess/coding lessons, sports/exercise (this can be anything e.g. someone I helped in NI got funding for adaptive surfing via the Wave project), mentoring, trips out, subscriptions/memberships/equipment, therapies, professional time.