British Citizens who have moved back to the UK after 2 years in the US not allowed a school place

[lucyhughes2]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this for us.

We are British Citizens and two years ago my husband was offered an inter company transfer to work in the US. This was just for two years and they relocated me and our three children there. He was on a L1 Visa and the rest of us L2.

My sons were attending a British State school before we moved.

Two years have now gone by and we moved back to our old house in the UK three weeks ago.

We have been informed that we cannot apply to a state school as the home office has no record of us. The LEA seem very confused and this has been going on for nearly a month now and we don't seem to be getting anywhere with a decision as to whether our children can start school in September.

I spoke to the LEA before we moved back and they informed us that they would not be able to discuss a school place for our children until we were physically in the country, although we had an address (I can understand the logic of this though) They also mentioned they wanted to clarify with the home office whether there would be any issues with our British children attending a state school as we had been out of the EU for two years. I felt this wasn't necessary due to us not being immigrants and we didn't emigrate. This has delayed our children getting into the local school and within this time a new child has just started so one of the classes for my son is full.

I am not allowed to appeal or apply to a school now until they have a decision from the home office, who i also think are confused.

The person i have been dealing with at the pupil access team really seems confused and doesn't make much sense. He did say they wanted to know what visas we were on when we came back into the country but i kept telling him we didn't need visas to come back, we are still British Citizens!!. This just feels a little frustrating. My 7 year old has autism and we really wanted to help him get settled.

Am i missing something here?? Have the LEA got the wrong end of the stick or is it true that we are not eligible for a school place in the UK now we have been out of the EU for two years?. My husband was even paying some UK tax while we were away.

Any help and advice would really be appreciated

thanks

What a total nightmare! I was going to move back at Christmas and I just rang the LEA and they told me where all the spaces were. They could not have been any more helpful. We had been out of the EU for five years.

Why would they need any record of you? What the feck has it got to do with the Home Office???

"Since it is the council's error that has prevented them from applying, would OP have a strong case at appeal? Even if it's infant class size? "

Yes, an administrative error which deprives a child of a place that would have rightfully been theirs had the application been handled correctly is grounds for winning an appeal.

This is however a late application, which was (correctly) accepted only 3 weeks ago (when the family was actually in UK, you cannot apply from abroad unless forces/certain categories of OGD staff). Even though they appear to have made a whopping mistake in holding up rather than processing this application, it's (so far) a short window in a quiet(ish) time so not a hugely likely scenario.

But OP might want to check if any places for her desired school/s were offered during that time. But as they might have gone to DC who fit the entrance criteria better than her, the basic fact than an offer was made is not sufficient. She would need to prove that her DC would have been above the offered DC on the waiting list at the time of the offer.

With regard to appeals. If the OP can prove in writing that they applied for a place prior to the other party applying and being given the last place at the school and given the nonsense that the LA admission people have been spouting (hopefully in writing), they should have a strong case at any appeal. Though nothing is ever guaranteed in this life.

I believe if your DC is under 18 yr old then s/he is entitled to the state schooling regardless s/he is or isn't UK citizen as long as their parent/s have to live in this country.

The whole thing with US children is a red herring. We have hordes of US children in our local primaries because we have two large US air bases nearby and many parents prefer the UK system for their DCs as they think it is better than the base schools (in which they are probably correct). They seem to get places based on catchment just like everyone else.