What happens when a school can’t meet a child’s needs?

[tiddlerislate]

Child is in reception but repeating the year. Severely autistic and non verbal, not toilet trained. He has an EHCP.

Parents want him to attend the local primary school but they have expressed concern they can’t meet his needs. I guess I’m asking what happens then - whose views bear most weight? Can parents insist he attends the school they want him to?

This is a terribly sad situation.
If the school are saying that then it's because they can't meet the needs.
Why would you want to send a child somewhere they are not wanted and where the school are saying it will struggle?
I work in a tiny rural primary. Just this year we have had 4 new children start - 2 in my class, all with SEND because another local school is telling parents this to basically off roll them.
Our head says he is unable to do this - it is illegal, as it should be, and that we have to physically demonstrate we can't meet their needs.
Basically the whole SEN system is set up so that the children have to be failed and struggle before any help is given.
It's a disgrace. It's harmful to these children and their families, it's harmful to the other children's education and as a teacher, frankly it's killing me!
I'm on my bloody knees, working so hard and honestly, doing a shit job because there is only one of me, a part time TA and more than half my class that need extra help. On paper 32% that are SEN (35% across our tiny school) We have recently said we cannot meet need for one little boy, severely autistic, in nappies and non verbal but as the local special school can't take him the LA have said tough. He was on a part time time table but we have been directed to take him full time at the parents request- despite the fact that we have tried to recruit for a 1:1 for him unsuccessfully three times - once we employed someone and they lasted 4 days. They had their hair pulled by him, rang in sick the next day, handed in their notice the next week.
He is visibly distressed by being in school with the other children and wants to go outside all the time and screeches horribly any time he is in the room. It's awful for him, us and the other children.
It's just not sustainable.
I had a conversation with one of the new children's mums who was so lovely and genuinely grateful and complimentary about the difference in her child since he started in my class - but she finished up by telling me that she has told her support group how amazing we are and that 2 of them are considering moving their children to us. I wanted to cry.
At the centre of it all are some very disadvantaged, beautiful children - who we truly want our best for but I have no more attention, time or of myself to give. Trips are becoming unbearable-the change of routine is distressing for the children. I feel guilty if I go on a course or have a meeting and my class is covered as I know having a supply teacher will mean some of the children can't cope.
I actually feel sorry for the other children who are having their education impacted too.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. The case I know about is similar, TAs are recruited to work 1 to 1 and leave, usually quite quickly, and after being assaulted.

Why would you want your child to go mainstream under these circumstances? It's almost like you have something to prove? It's not fair on your child it's not fair on the teacher and it's not fair on the other 29 children in the class

I’ve seen this play out in different ways in my daughters’ classes. In one there is significant need (although lower than the OP’s example) and no echp in place which is proving disastrous for the children in question and the rest of the class as no-one is getting their needs met appropriately.

In the other, the child had an ECHP early on and it was obvious from term 1 in reception that mainstream wasn’t going to work. The poor lad was on one hour a day until a special school placement came up and is now doing much better.

I’ve got a friend who is a teacher in a special school and the infant years are basically empty which feels like such a wasted opportunity for so many children who might otherwise benefit.

We've stopped the majority of trips for this reason. It's not fair to exclude children who couldn't cope with the change of routine.

My daughter is year 3 and has a boy in her class who is in one hour a day with 1-1 provision. It started as half days towards the end of reception and got less and less.

Yes, it's illegal exclusion, and yes, the school are obviously trying to off-roll him by the back door, but it's also all he can cope with.

I have no idea why the parents haven't sought alternative provision, but every term he gets further and further behind, it sad to watch.

OP: with the deepest of sympathy, it's not going to get better, if mainstream are saying they can't meet his needs now, the gap between him and his peers will only grow, find a special school placement.

I work with students where the wheels come off in secondary, as 1-1 provision either permanently or until they find a suitable school. The process of changing tack gets harder the older they get, if you're offered an alternative to mainstream, grab it with both hands as soon as you can is my advice.

This isn’t my child. I was just trying to find out what the legal position is but unfortunately it’s turned into a pile on of disabled children and their parents.

Parents might well have sought alternative provision and been told no. They might also be so busy and drained from dealing with their dc’s needs on a day to day basis that they can’t face a tribunal, especially when they’re being gaslit and blamed by professionals. This is the reality for many families.

What a shame for the children who could have coped with the trip and really benefited from it ☹️

I don’t have any answers but the situation is shit. I left state teaching for exactly this reason. My final year 50% of my class had an IEP (don’t think they’re called that anymore - basically a document supposedly revised termly detailing the specific targets for that child and what school will do to support them). It is impossible to accommodate literally half the class needing all these adjustments while still getting through the curriculum.

There needs to be more investment in special schools. I also think they should be more specialised. At the moment all children with disabilities are put together in a generic special school for either modern or severe learning difficulties. The needs of an energetic autistic child are very different to those of a child with another comex disability. I think parents who choose mainstream are choosing it because the special school seems to also be unsuitable

Mixture of reasons, I was in that situation. I fell for the nonsense (which it was for my family), that somehow being around nt children, that it'd rub off on my child. No idea why I thought that seeing as living with nt parents didn't make any difference.
Also it could be that right now they arent ready to accept that their child needs to be in a special school as that means life really is different.

@modgepodge

It's such a shame. I love taking children on trips and think the educational and social value is immense. However we don't have enough staff to be 2:1 for the children who need it and the stress of taking and managing dysregulated behaviour as well as large classes is beyond what our head teacher will allow.

Exactly. Places in suitable special schools for children who need them are as rare as hen's teeth.

I have sen children and see time and again in my dc primary. Parents want mainstream but school very obviously can't meet needs, school says so then school forced. Placement breaks down after 2 or 3 years.

And you can forget about wraparound and friends. In my experience wraparound won't cater for sen as they don't get extra funding to manage needs, same with summer schemes. They might even say no from get go. Same with afterschool clubs. They won't have friends and playdates if non verbal as parents won't want to deal with the sen kid.

This may sound harsh but it's the way it is.

And yes I'm probably a bit bitter myself. My kids were suited to mainstream with 1:1 support but wraparound couldn't cope with dc and same with summer scheme. I had to leave my ft job and work school hours only. Oh and there the school ringing you to pick up the child as they arnt coping or the reduced timetable as the child literally cannot cope. And the day where TA is sick and they have an immense meltdown. This is my experience with a decent mainstream primary with good sen support

I’ve got an autistic 8 year old in special school.

I have never, ever met a parent who insist their child is mainstream-educated when they shouldn’t have been, and I have been navigating “the system” since DS was 3, when his independent pre-school first said they couldn’t meet need. I still had to send him to mainstream for two years to “prove” that a LA school couldn’t meet need either. DS, the other children, his 1:1 and his teacher suffered during this time. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I suspect the parents of these notional children are in fact trying to access an appropriate education for their child, but the LA thinks it’s cheaper if they stay put.

Incidentally, DS school now costs the LA £100k per year, per child. Unless we’re all going to pay many multiples more in council tax, we need to find a way to accommodate and meet the needs of the increasing numbers of autistic children in mainstream.

Parents like that are selfish. They put their lride over the child’s needs (as well as the wellbeing of the other children in the class and the poor teacher) “cos we know our rights” and they don’t want to accept they have a different child who can’t be educated like the majority.

@Notgivenuphope what a horrible comment. You do understand that there is a chronic shortage of places in SEND school settings, don't you? Nobody is bending over backwards to give SEND kids appropriate school places. We've just secured a SEND place for our son and it has taken almost 2 years of fighting, and about 100 pages of reports. Most SEND parents get precious little choice where they send their kids....

There isn't a short answer.

If parents want a child at that school and he has been placed at that school then that's where he goes.

There are a number of routes by which he could end up in a different school.

Firstly the parents could change their mind and decide they want him at a different school. If this is another mainstream primary there is a process for this.

The parents could change their mind and decide they want him at special school. This would then usually involve gathering a lot of supporting evidence and fighting the LA to get a place. Often lawyers need to be involved to make the LA stick to the law.

Thirdly, the placement could break down. This is education speak for "the situation just became intolerable". Sometimes a placement breaks down because a child with autism becomes very anxious about going into school and refuses to go. Sometimes a placement breaks down because the child is violent and the school chooses to temporarily exclude for each violent episode, and this continues until either the child is sufficiently violent to be permanently excluded or racks up enough temporary exclusions to be permanently excluded.

If the child is non verbal and non toilet trained, then hopefully there is an EHCP giving him some support.

Another alternative which I have seen is that the child and their TA work away from the class at all times and basically sit in a room or corridor on their own all day. The TA then does their best to teach the child something.

The Primary school where I am Governor has several children whose needs they clearly said they could NOT meet but they were forced to take them anyway.
School is doing its best but its not great

I think given the pressure on special school places, I'd suggest putting that on the ehcp from the word go.

Very few children who start reception with the needs you describe are able to successfully finish Y6 in mainstream, so it just becomes a case of joining the queue later - likely with a fairly traumatised and school avoidant child by then.

I do see how parents may need a lot of time to accept the path their child is on, but the longer they take the harder it becomes all around.

You don’t get to just “put a special school on the EHCP” at any point, as a parent. A school that is named on the EHCP must be delivered by the LA within quite narrow criteria - hence they fight tooth and nail NOT to name a school so they can shoehorn the SEN kid into any old setting with a place (of which there are vanishingly few).

Not all special schools are equal. It took two full years from me identifying the school we wanted, to DS getting a place confirmed by the LA. I spent about £30k on specialist reports. DS has no learning difficulties, but the LA suggested sending him to various schools for children who do. He needed a setting for autistic children with normal ability and that is (eventually) what he got, but the LA was in no hurry and (unfortunately for everyone) it was the mainstream school that had to pick up the slack.

Legally the LA has to find something. Your friend may have to be a complete pain and keep banging on about it but every child is entitled to an education.

Parents are seeing their children’s education interrupted. Children are traumatised on a daily basis because of behaviours in classrooms. It’s easy to blame the parent when in actual fact it’s the system which isn’t changing any time soon. Neither side is winning.

I'm a KS1 teacher and have also seen this many times. Parents often focus on Reception class when looking around a school. The Reception setting with continuous provision appears like it might be accessible. It's when formal learning starts in Year 1, often in a confined space, that it becomes difficult to accommodate more severe needs. At that point there are often no special school places available.

That is absolutely not true! We have some amazing SEN provision, including provision for children with ASD. The issue is that theres been an explosion of severe SEN and demand for specialist provision has exceeded supply. The government has made it extremely difficult to build new schools and LAs are going bust due to the massive cost of a combination of SEN education plus elderly care needs.