Moving to a new school - wheelchair accessibility

[ellequick]

Morning All,

I'm after some advice as I'm not sure how to approach this. We are moving soon, from London to North Herts. I have 2 kids, one in Reception and one in Y2. The Y2 child will be having a series of operations on his legs soon which will seriously affect his mobility for a year or so and require a few months in a wheelchair.

I'm not sure how to factor this into school applications - we don't have exchange/completion dates yet for our move so we can't go on waiting lists yet, but I have started to contact schools and enquire about their accessibility. I'm worried because my son's current school make the usual noises on their website about being accessible yet when I spoke to them, they clearly are not set up for children in wheelchairs and were asking if it would be ok for my son to shuffle up and down stairs on his bum etc (it won't!)

Someone has mentioned to me that we might consider an EHCP, but having looked into it this looks like a long process and I'm also not sure if this is appropriate for something which is temporary. Can anyone offer any advice, please?

Obviously, this is all made trickier by the fact we're about to go into summer holidays and I'm not sure we will be in time to apply before schools break up... so stressful!

When are the operations and which months will be worst for mobility?

This could all work out quite well because going into y3 the infant class size restrictions no longer apply so if you can identify a school that can manage providing facilities for a pupil who uses a wheelchair, then it should be possible for them to make an extra place even if the classes are already 30 each.

I would speak to the local authority and ask their advice on how to approach it. They will also know which schools really do have proper wheelchair access and how you go about applying in year under Rule 2 (social and medical grounds).

I do think you need to be mindful that you might not get both children into the same school though but to infant class size rules for reception.

you can apply now.
It sounds a bit bonkers, but you can apply from your current address. If the school has a place, they have a place, and they can give it to you even if you live 100 miles away. If there is no place, then you can go on the waiting list, but will be at the bottom due to distance.

The problem then comes that they normally put a time constraint of taking up that place, typically 3 weeks.
Summer holidays are rubbish, many school applications won't even be processed over the summer, as the school cannot reply and agree to the new pupil.

I would contact the LA, rather than the schools, and ask if there is a way that you can do this. You will probably need a doctors letter of some sort.

many schools round here are single storey, and so the only issue would be ramps in the main door. That might be worth considering. Do remember that they have to provide access, but also, our school has 2 buildings, and there is only a disabled loo in one of the buildings.

My DC's primary is not overly set up for wheelchairs but when a child has broken a leg and is in one, they've moved the entire class to a downstairs classroom in the building that has ramp access and the disabled toilet. So on paper it doesn't look possible but is, with planning.

Every school should be able to make appropriate adjustments to allow for your son to go to school fulltime. You need to establish the schools which are most appropriate for you in terms of easy of getting to etc and then have a conversation with the school.
If your son with mobility issues is currently year 2 by the time you are moving etc, he will be in year 3, when any appeal would be on the basis of strength of your appeal. Much more of a potential problem is your younger son as many schools will be full and the infant class size regs will apply. This makes it near impossible in your situation to win an appeal for reception or year 1/2 pupil.
I suspect that you will find that many schools are well set up to accommodate your eldest child in a temporary wheel chair and that your younger child is more of an issue.

Your child can be prioritised for a place without an EHCP. If you have exceptional medical grounds you can state this in the application (with professional evidence eg letter from doctor) and your application will be prioritised within category ie top of the list of out of catchment children. That's if it's a new application for junior school. If it's a through primary I'm not sure if that happens for applications mid way through.

I hope this get sorted. Schools do need to have an accessibility plan under the Equality Act 2010 - www.rapidramp.co.uk/product-news/what-is-a-dda-compliant-ramp