Disabled parents and in year school admissions

[IloveSooty424]

I’m looking for any advice and information from anyone facing or having faced similar circumstances to me.

We are having to move house due to being in rental accommodation which long term isn’t feasible financially. My son is 7 and goes to his local primary school in the local village. There’s isn’t any housing available in the area that would enable him to stay at his current school. We have found a house in the neighbouring city but both the local primary schools within walking distance are full.

My circumstances are I’m registered disabled and in receipt of Personal Independence Payment for severe mobility problems. I don’t want to go into details but my disability is mental health based and I’m under the Community Mental Health Team and a psychiatrist and on prescription medication and have been for over 15 years.

My main is issue is I can’t drive due to my disability and need to be able to walk my son to school. My husband drives but works long hours and is often out of town. He can’t keep taking our son to and from his current school and my ability to use public transport especially taxis is not an option due to my disability.

I don’t know what to do. Nearly every house we’ve viewed and liked has no school places within walking distance. I don’t know whether I’d have grounds to appeal for a place due to exceptional circumstances under the 2010 Equality Act. I could provide substantial medical evidence and letters from the DWP outlining my disability.

Home schooling isn’t an option as my son would be stuck at home with me every day with zero social interaction with other children which he desperately needs.

My disability really limits my quality of life and that of my son which makes me so depressed. We can’t ever go on holiday for example. I just want to be able to walk my son to school.

I’m sorry for the long post, but would really appreciate hearing from anyone who is disabled and has experienced the in year school admissions process via appeal. Thank you.

You are unfortunately stuck between two problems. Most LAs / Schools will only consider an application for a place when you have actually moved into an area, using the new address. You have established both of the obvious schools where you want to move to are full but actually until you apply for a place you cannot guarantee that.
You can apply for a school place from anywhere, not just the local area, so the obvious thing seems to be to apply to both the schools that are local and see what happens. If by chance they have a place then you get the place and then would need to move quickly. If there is no place then the LA is obliged to establish whether you actually do have a school place, which of course you have.
The other way of looking at this and probably only the one alternative is to move. When you are in the new address then you can apply for school places in the local area and either they have a place for you or not. If not the LA, as you have moved into the area, is obliged to find you a place but this could be a considerable distance away, it does not have to be at a local school.
I am guessing that son is in year 2. Rather than potentially have to deal with infant class size regulations in any appeal, I would look to apply for a place in early June , which would then allow you to be asking for a year 3 place in September and therefore any appeal would only be for a year 3 and therefore on prejudice against you and your son. With your medical issues and the evidence that you can produce you have, in my opinion, a strongish case for admission. BUT there is never any guarantee on any appeal. Sorry this sounds convoluted but it is the only way forward that I think gives you a reasonable chance of getting a place at a local school.

Thank you @ admission, that does make sense and has given me a lot to think about.