Fixed Exclusion

[Teenz38]

My son in yr 5, suffers with ADHD and conduct disorder and receives IPF. Last week he had a very bad week in school and was excluded twice,I am usually given the exclusion letter on the day but on his 2nd exclusion for last Friday (just the day) I still have not had his exclusion letter and they have told me they are sending it out in the post so I will still not receive it for a few days. I am not sure if the school has a legal duty to issue the exclusion letter on the day and if this is the case will the school think I am being funny if I complain about it?

Post this on the SN Childrens board and you will probably get lots of helpful advice.

Both SOS SEN and ipsea can advise you about exclusion.

Do you care if school thinks 'you're being funny'. They have excluded your 5 year old twice! This is totally unacceptable. You need to be thinking about your son, not the school.

Does he have a statement?

I would start making a huge fuss. What are they doing to help him cope with school, they should have a plan of action not just exclude him all the time. Are you in contact with parent partnership?

Whatever is being done doesn't seem to be enough.

When Exclusion letters have to be with the parent depends on exactly when they were excluded in the day and when the exclusion takes place. However it should be in effect with you within 24 hours. So the school are failing to meet the guidance on exclusions.

I would not be too concerned about this error this time, assuming that your son is now back at school and nothing else has been said.

However I would be very concerned by the fact your son has had 2 exclusions in a week (and presumably more in the past). The school is clearly not getting to grips with appropriate alternatives to ensure that your son is not getting into these situations and from the tone of your posts the standard answer seems to be a fixed term exclusion.

You need to be talking to the school and insisting that they put alternative strategies into place and that you need to know what they are. The danger for you and your son is that the school could change the fixed term exclusions into a permanent exclusion on the basis of persistant disruptive behaviour, when they loose patience with his behaviour.

Thanks for the advise, yes I am in contact with my local Parent Partnership and rang them yesterday and left a message but am still waiting for them to get back in contact with me as I have also asked them if they can attend the next CAF meeting. Also I would like to point out he is in year 5 and is not 5yrs old so he is 10. I received the exclusion letter in the post today for the exlusion of 1/2 day for the 21 Jan. The decison was made due to him disrupting the class at the beginning of the day,refusing to follow the behaviour policy of going to his link class. Starting to damage property in the ICT suite then he was removed to the PPA room where he continued to be physically and verbally abusive towards staff. I am also considering asking for a statement for him which I would like help from the parent partnership as this is the 1st time i have encountered having to do this as my 2 other children do not suffer from any problems.

Teenz,
I think to be honest 1/2 a day exclusion sounds like the school is actually leaning over backwards not to make too much of your sons behaviour. In many schools this could easily have been 3 to 5 days exclusion.
I think the key to this is to get talking with the school as to how you can get your son back on the right track and part of that must be a proper statement of his special needs.

If you are going to request a statement please make sure you get ALL letters immediately and also ask if the exclusions are going on your sons records. My DS was excluded ALOT at age 5/6/7 and when we asked for a statement the LEA said there was nothing on his record detailing any exclusions. You should recieve a letter and also be offered a return to school interview meeting with the head BEFORE your son starts again. This error on my DSs school records delayed us getting a statement for many months and meant we had to go to tribunal to prove it. Also check that the school are sending a copy of the exclusion letter to the LEA, also bare in mind that if the school are excluding your DS for something that can be attributed to his disability then they are discriminating against him if they dont then offer support to ensure a similar situation does not arise again.

Ask for a meeting with head and SENCO. Ask to see Dss latest IEP and check he is on school action plus. It may be worth asking about an educational welfare officer and also find out if you have a pupil referral unit in your area (this can be used instead of exclusion and can basically offer shared education with the school if school are not coping)
I say all this from experience and had to find out about all these things myself.