Daughter turned down on her 3 chosen schools, appeal

[samabs]

Hi, I am just wondering if anyone could offer me any advice on the appeal.
My 6 year old daughter has Muscular dystrophy as do I. Along with the application for in term admission I included a Dr's letter saying that she needs a school close to our new home with no stairs if possible as she fatigues very easily.
We got a letter a few days ago saying that as the 3 chosen schools have reached their numbers. She has been offered a school 1.5 miles away (2 of the schools we applied for are less than O.4 miles away from our home) This is too far for me to travel to on my mobility scooter (and to make matters worse, until next year a bridge and foot path is closed so the school is actually a 2 mile walk away) and much too far to walk with my daughter and my 2 year old son who also has muscular dystrophy
The school she currently attends is 3.4 miles away from our new home so obviously she has to move schools. I don't really want to put her in the school place that she has been offered to move her again if a place comes up at one of the chosen schools as with her disability she would find it harder than a "normal" child to form friendships and moving schools twice would disrupt her education.

Does any body have any idea how appeals work and if we would be likely to be successful with our appeal?
My daughter doesn't have a SEN report as her last school has not been very understanding of her needs.
thanks Sam

I think you will need to appeal on the grounds of medical need.

You appeal for each school individually. The letter you received should have told you how you go about appealing. As you have been turned down for 3 schools, you can lodge 3 appeals.

If the school has 30 children in each class in your daughter's year it will be an infant class size appeal. It is very difficult to win such an appeal. You can only win if the LA has made a mistake or acted unreasonably. As this is not the normal year of entry it is highly unlikely they have made a mistake. It is pretty difficult to show they have acted unreasonably - you have to show their decision was irrational. I am not saying you won't win if it is infant class size. That depends on the panel.

If it is not an infant class size case you will have a much better chance of winning your appeal. Basically you have to show that the prejudice to your daughter through not attending the school outweighs the prejudice to the school through being forced to admit an additional child.

Your appeal will clearly be based on your daughter's medical problems. You can also raise your own problems since that would make it difficult for you to take your daughter to and from school.

You need strong medical evidence to have a reasonable chance of success. If the letter from your doctor says, "Samabs tells me" it is no use to you. You need it to say "in my opinion" - it must be clear to the panel that the doctor is giving his or her own opinion, not simply repeating what you have said. If your daughter has been seen by a specialist a similar letter from them would be helpful.

Thank you for your reply, The doctors letter was based on his medical knowledge about her condition and needs, I will see if I can get letters from her specialist and physiotherapist as well.

It is very early days, I phoned the number on the letter and they are sending me an appeals form. Just panicking a bit because I'm not sure what we will do if we loose. As my daughter hasn't got a SEN and the allocated school is 1.5-2 miles away I doubt she would qualify for school transport but that's a different story, lol

Thanks again

She has a medical condition that might well qualify her for school transport. So I would try to pursue that at the same time.

Also it depends on where you are but if they offer you a school which is beyond a certain mileage they are obliged to pay for transportation appropriate to the child (in our area they send a taxi every day) Would that resolve your problem WRT distance?

I have read that it is 2 miles walking distance to qualify in my area, at the moment whilst the bridge including its foot path is closed it is 2 miles but when it re opens it is only 1.5 miles so she may not qualify.

If I had to go in the taxi I wouldn't be able to because I can't go outside with my son walking and I need to be sat down to get him in and out of the pushchair and can't collapse it myself. My daughter turned 6 last week so she would probably be too young to go in a taxi by her self (she is very shy)

Another issue is when I apply for my son to go to nursery, ideally I would like to get him in one of the 3 schools she was turned down for but I wouldn't be able to take them both to different schools. If I applied for him to go to the same school as her then she got a place through a waiting list I would then have this trouble moving my son

I would have thought the LEA may choose to provide her with disabled transport if there is no school place nearby. Disabled children do regularly have to go in a taxi (with escort) from a very young age. After all, if her shyness doesn't make her unable to go to school, it might not make her unable to travel there either.

My dd is physically disabled and she gets disabled transport though the school is less than 2 miles away.

The distance for free transport is 2 miles for a child under 8. As Mummytime says, your daughter may well qualify for free transport based on her medical condition even if you don't meet the distance requirement. However, the transport is for your daughter only. The LA is under no obligation to take you or your son.

What swayed it for us with the transport people was the combination of dd's medical condition (can't walk, can't use public transport) and my inability to drive her (eyesight problems).

Thanks for reply
I didn't mean I wanted me and my son to come, I was trying to say I couldn't. Didn't know she would have an escort and was a bit worried about putting her in a taxi everyday, as the drivers aren't CRB checked and in my area (Bradford) a lot of the driver don't speak very good English, so for a shy just turned 6 year old it would be very daunting to go on her own.

I will look in to school transport more whilst the appeal is happening. It is just frustrating because I'm not being picky with the schools, just chose all 3 within walking distance that I could get her to. If she has to get school transport I will have barely any contact with the school or the other parents. But if they are full I'll just have to get on with it.

I think you need to be more ruthless samabs. Get statements from the doctor about how far you can travel as well as extra reports about dd.

I know it must be hard filling in forms like this and getting all the evidence but you have to keep in your mind that these people do not know you or dd from Adam so you have to make sure they understand exactly what the issues are.

The way transport works in my area is that you get a designated driver, not just any old driver who turns up. I imagine he is CRB checked. And a child as young as 6 would have a CRB checked escort.

Same in mine, we live in a rural area ( appreciate Bradford doesn't quite qualify as such!) and at the moment 15% of our children come by taxi, some as young as 4. The driver is CRB cleared, as is any escort.

From what I've heard about appeals you must give evidence as to why the school you want will meet her needs but the school she has been offered will not, e.g. specialist facilities, stairs, buildings too far apart etc.

Whatever happens regarding appeals and transport, get her on to the waiting lists for your local schools. I'm sure it is good for the whole family if you can take your children to school and play a part in the school community. I realise you don't want to move her more than necessary but at least give yourself the option - she may surprise you.

Could she get transport to her current school until a place come up locally?

Perhaps you should be getting her statemented, can you get advice on this from a support group/charity?

It's a horrible situation for you, good luck.

our 2nd choice if the appeals are not successful would be to keep her in the school she is at (and put her name on the waiting list for the other schools.) It is 3.2 miles away so which ever school she goes to outside the chosen 3 she would need transport so I hope they will provide transport for her to stay put, but I have read they only provide transport to the closest offered school.

Thanks to all who have offered me advice :)

Things are looking good at the moment, phoned the 1st choice school up today and the head teacher said, because she mixes yr1 and yr2 classes there are only 25 children in each class and she would not attend the appeal as she can see no reason why my daughter can't attend the school. She is phoning admissions to find out about why there is a waiting list today so hopefully should have some good news soon :)

In order to have particular needs met, I believe that the medical professionals involved need to say 'I have considered the facts and in child XX needs to attend school YY because XYZ'. Very specific, not a general statement, and referring to the specific school you think is right.

You may feel that common sense would prevail, and that schools take the overall context into account. Some do, but when looking for a school for DS which could accomodate him using a wheelchair fo at least one year of his primary school life, we were told by one appeals panel, of an accessible school, that our appeal had failed because every primary school now had to have a DDA Action Plan. Aha: so the fact that our nearest schools Action Plan said 'build accessible entrance within 5 years' i.e when DS was in Yr 5, meant he could get in now....

Samabs,
Be careful about what the headteacher says because it depends on what the admission number for the year group is. If they are mixed age teaching years1 and 2 then the possibility is that the admission number is 45. Although they may only have 75 (3 x 25) in the two year groups the year1 may actually be full (that is there are 45)

As such the LA and the school cannot admit your child, only an admission appeal panel can. You should appeal as assuming your letter from the doctor does confirm a diagnosis and does not say Mrs X says ..... then you should have a reasonable case for admission.

Blu Mon 01-Nov-10 15:51:54
"In order to have particular needs met, I believe that the medical professionals involved need to say 'I have considered the facts and in child XX needs to attend school YY because XYZ'."

Not quite. If a medical professional advises a particular school, it can make the LEA suspicious. What a medical letter needs to say is "X needs a school with these characteristics".

I thought all drivers for school transport have to be CRB checked. They do in this area anyway. They don't use just any taxi firm but ones they have a contract with (I know because a friends husband does school runs).

Drivers should indeed be CRB checked. I would be very surprised if that isn't happening in Bradford.

I have got her into her 1st choice school. The head teacher phoned admissions and said there is room for DD and there is now a letter from admissions in the post to offer her a place from the start of next term :) So we wont need to get in touch with transport as it is close enough to get to ourselves.

Congratulations!

Well done and congratulations, I was a School Appeals Officer (in my working life) and I read the posts with interest. So pleased for you, I know how stressful this issue can be for parents.