Can a school refusing admission unless DS2 gets EHCP funding?

[FamilyLawAdvice]

basically the school my DS1 goes to called a meeting with the SENCO who turned around and said unless DS2 gets an EHCP they won't give him admission to the school.

He has a speech delay and the language of a 2 year old he's not autistic and his hearing is fine so it's just a delay from which they don't know.

The issue is they've said no school will accept him unless he gets it which they're not sure if he'll get it so im at a loss as to what we'd do with him

any advice?

Bubbles,

The thing is, this school is signalling 'we don't want your child' FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT, which will then be a disbenefit to another school who will then have a disproportionately higher number of SEN children.

Then OP's school can boast that it is 'better' on the league tables, while its staff have to work less hard and the school has to devote less money to looking after SEN children ... whole another school works overly hard and has to spend a disproportionate amount of its money and time on SEN children and then endures the public (and Ofsted) perception of being 'worse'). Sorting schools by %SEN and %FSM and looking at Ofsted grades and position in the 'results' league tables is instructive but shocking.

I wasn't necessari;y suggesting that the OP should SEND her child to this school. just that lots...and lots...and lots of meetings, and the cost of an Ed Psych assessment and LOTS of paperwork to and from might go some small way to offsetting the amount of effort they will 'escape' if they manage to put the OP off at this nice early (cheap) stage.....

"in consultation with the LA, admit and make provision for any pupil with a disability providing that the placement is appropriate to the child’ s age, ability, aptitude and special educational needs, whilst also compatible with the interests of other children already in the school and with the efficient use of the LA’ s resources"

Thats what it says about AN on their admissions policy.

Tbh I don't know if i want him there after this, how can I be assured that they're doing what they should be when they're already acting like this and he's not there yet? Do I really want that SENCo if I now can't trust a word she has said.

I want him to go to a school to which he'll thrive at and be accepted as he is instead of being there with adults who are more concerned about their looks then the kids

Shocking... but sadly unsurprising.
I work at a school that is inclusive. A nearby school manages not to be and we inherit their discarded pupils. It is not a fair state of affairs...

Whatever their admission policy says, the rules are clear (as is the law). They must admit in line with their published admission criteria. If they are undersubscribed they must admit any child who applies. If they are oversubscribed they must admit in the order determined by their oversubscription criteria. They cannot have some other policy operating alongside that excluding SEN children.

If that is their published admissions policy, I would send an e-mail to the LA who administers admissions and ask for clarification.

State that you were intending to apply as a sibling, but that you were told that your child might not be admitted according to the new statement in their admissions criteria - please could they confirm whether this wording is lawful and whether their interpretation (that a child like yours may not be admitted) is correct.

You may or may not want to state that you had also been told that your child would not be admitted unless they had an EHCP but that the school has now reluctantly admitted that this is not correct

Sorry, lack of clarity in the pronouns there: please could the LA (even if this is an academy or a church school, the LA still handles the co-ordinated admissions procedure) confirm that the school's interpretation is correct.

If the LA say they don't handle admissions criteria, then the office of the Schools Adjudicator has a form you can fill in to make the query.

Without seeing the full admissions policy I can't comment directly. However, a school may not "discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children, those with special educational needs" (Admissions Code, para 1.9(h)). This paragraph appears to breach that. Also the law is clear that they must admit in line with their published oversubscription criteria. A paragraph on additional needs elsewhere in their admissions policy is irrelevant. If a child with additional needs qualifies under their oversubscription criteria (often referred to as their admission criteria) they must be admitted.

FamilyLawAdvice - If you would like to PM me the name of the school involved I will be happy to take a look and advise further.

This wording was familiar to me, so I had a look on IPSEA. It's been largely taken from the Children and Families Act 2014 Section 39. But that only applies to the refusal of children with an EHCP, not without. (as they can refuse admittance of a child with an EHCP for the reasons set out there)

It sounds like they are going to say they can’t meet need, will your child require 1-1 support? My school is very inclusive but with funding cuts we can only provide limited 1-1 without an EHCP I.e we have a child who is physically violent to Staff and children and is unsafe on his own (running away etc). He only attends until 1.30 as he needs the 1-1 and without extra funding we can only offer it until 1.30.

Prh47 will pop you a pm

He may not need 1-1 no but he has a speech delay and doesn't talk he can understand you but you can't understand him.

They offered nothing like reduced times just come with an EHCP or he won't be allowed to attend

They should be able to tell you what they are planning on spending their allocated 6000 on. Our child’s parent recognised the need for 1-1 so was happy for him to attend part time in order to get that. The school should be working out a mutually agreeable plan with you. It may be worth finding a more inclusive school for your son as they sound awful 🤬

I really do understand cantkeepawayforever. I spent many hours in my working life trying to get schools to admit children they didn’t want to admit! Before league tables existed. It’s not a new phenomenon.

The law is now much clearer and this is discrimination. A EHCP usually states the school a child should attend. I am wondering OP if you have schools with Language units attached? These do require an EHCP to get into but can greatly help the children in them. Your catchment school is playing fast and lose with admissions law. Can you start the ball rolling for an EHCP?

A child entitled to full time education shouldn’t be denied that due to finance either.

"They should be able to tell you what they are planning on spending their allocated 6000" there isn't an allocated £6000 what there is, is a notional £6000 which is part of the school's notional SEN budget which varies from school to school. Some schools in my area have notional SEN budgets of only a few hundred pounds. Tell me how they can make that into £6000? The system is broken and children are suffering!

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/sep/05/special-needs-funding-at-crisis-point-say-school-leaders

FamilyLawAdvice - Thanks for the PM. I've taken a look at the school in question. The passage you quote is from the SEND policy and does not form part of their admissions policy. If they tried to use this to justify not admitting a pupil they would be in big trouble.

As DobbinsVeil points out, this wording is adapted from the Children and Families Act 2014 and relates to the situation in which the school can object to being named in an EHCP. Whilst their policy is not clear that the wording only applies in this situation, they cannot legally apply it more widely.

Looking at their admissions policy, there is no mention of pupils with additional needs beyond saying that any child with an EHCP naming the school will be admitted. Their admission criteria are fairly standard with the exception that one category (medical/psychological needs) is only used during the normal admissions round - I think that is dubious and may not survive a challenge to the Schools Adjudicator. But there is absolutely nothing in their admissions policy that would allow them to exclude a child unless they get additional funding. If their admissions policy did say that it would be in breach of the Admissions Code. As their admissions policy doesn't say that, excluding a child on this basis would be a breach of the Admissions Code.

So the school is fobbing off the OP with, in effect, lies. It’s a pre admission selection process. They know exactly what they are doing. I don’t know what school it is but I would talk to the LA admissions office because this process is simply wrong.