Appealing a school exclusion

[ASNQuery]

Our child was recently excluded from school for 2 days. We believe the school’s response to their disregulation exacerbated a situation and protocol was not followed. Obviously we can’t undo the absence from school but we are considering an appeal.

I'm seeking advice if anyone’s been through such a process, understands who hears the appeal, and can also help us decide if we need legal representation. I previously reached out to the Education team at Govan Law Centre regarding placing appeal but have had radio silence from them so perhaps need to hire legal advice privately.

Part of the objective of the appeal is to highlight to the education authority the risk that continues if my child remains in their current setting both to staff and my child - is that likely to get any attention?

finally, if we were to appeal, is it likely to irreparably damage an already fraught relationship with school leadership?

It’s impossible to say without knowing more context and can understand why you would never put more context on a public forum.

Not entirely sure what you mean by ‘disregulation’?

Is it that the school are not following guidelines/standards or that they have not sufficiently organised something?

In general though the school would not be accountable for an individual’s actions in normal circumstances.

So for example if child A assaulted child B inside a school building it wouldn’t be a defence to say it’s the school’s fault as they weren’t being supervised at the time sufficiently.

Although that may be a separate cause for complaint the schools are within their rights to discipline the perpetrator.

As far as the appeal goes then you would follow internal procedures first then escalate if needed.

Personally though for the sake of two days I’d probably focus on whether my child was at fault then help them use this to learn from, as if they are responsible it will just teach them not to be accountable and to blame others for their own behaviour.

On the other hand though if you are satisfied it was not your child’s fault in any way then taking this further will slow them how to advocate for themselves in future.

The fact that he has had an exclusion will raise awareness of a risk of permanent exclusion, so it’s actually a good thing it’s on his school record.

Thanks for your thoughts both.

@Soontobe60 do you know if that does raise flags at the education authority? And what they might respond with? We've been told nothing flags to the EA that a child has been excluded (which struck me as odd.)

Do you have the Scottish equivalent of an EHCP?

Dysregulation is how schools describe what would previously be called a "meltdown"

Yes

In which case you may get help from the SEN board (but say you are in Scotland).
Broadly in England my understanding is they shouldn't exclude for behaviour caused by the SN.

Thanks, yes that's the gist of the thoughts about an appeal.

I thought there wasn't a Scottish equivalent to the EHCP? What was the actual reason for exclusion - it's very difficult to exclude children in Scottish schools currently

It doesn't have same legal weight but there is either an IEP or Child's Plan.

Permanent exclusion is banned in Scotland but temporarily exclusions happen often. You can’t have too many back to back as then the school will be accused of trying to permanently exclude a child via lots of temporary exclusions.

What do you want to happen OP?

Schools can usually temporarily exclude if it’s for the well being of the staff or other pupils. Must be pretty stressful for them to have a disregulated child in class.

Ultimately for my child to be educated in an appropriate setting reducing risk to them and staff. Our placing requests have been refused though. So putting it on a higher radar might help, I don't know...

My advice would be to focus on your child and to what extent he is being safeguarded at the school. If he is being put in situations where he is getting distressed then his safeguarding is not being protected.

Sorry I didn’t see what his SNs are but if he is autistic I have always found emailing Scottish autism for advice really helpful. Prompt and expert advice. I’d expect they’d let you know your rights, processes that might be helpful and any educational settings you should be aiming to get your child into.

Also if you have any MSPs who have some sort of intelligence and enthusiasm, they can be very helpful in getting a rocket up the backside of the Local Education department who are likely to stall, stall, and stall again.

You would be better off focusing on getting the school your child needs. Exclusions add to your evidence. Trying to fight an exclusion that has already happened seems pointless and yes of course it is going to worsen the relationship you have with the school.

As you are talking about risk to him and to staff it suggests you are talking about physical violence. Most mainstream schools will exclude for this regardless of sen.

You mention placing requests - are these to equivalent schools in different catchments or to a specialist provision?

Thanks for your thoughts. This is where I am at, DH wants to fight it more than I do.

thanks to all for your thoughts. Yes, there is physical violence, and the placing requests are to specialist provision. Im trying to keep details light for privacy reasons but I am grateful for everyone’s input.

I am in England so may be different but we can exclude or PX for behaviour related to SEN if all correct adjustments have been made for the SEN and the behaviour continues.
Sorry if I missed it but why exactly do you want to appeal OP?
Schools don't usually want to exclude but sometimes need to to protect all of the children and staff.
An appeal will be costly and here it comes out of school funds I think so it could be counter productive

My sympathy is with the OP 100%. This is a ludicrous situation. OPs child has a right to an education. They find mainstream distressing and have violent outbursts. The school don’t want OPs child in school and yet the council refuse to provide OPs child with a suitable provision.

OP’s child is failed, OP is failed, the school, the teacher and the other children are failed. Just so that the government can save a bit of money not opening a suitable school. Totally enraging!

I agree
I have just been involved in PX a 7 year old who should never have been in mainstream. He struggled since Reception and was then moved to another school last May who clearly stated they could not meet his needs but were forced to take him. This child cannot be in a mainstream school, he is a danger to staff and other pupils and has had no real education.
The school were in the process of getting an ECHP for him but even when he gets it there are no places for him so he will at best get an hour of online schooling a day that he can't actually engage with

Thanks @9fthighfence that’s it in a nutshell. With the recent Audit Scotland report, our hopes are not high.

You can try for a Coordinated Support Plan depending on his needs. As rare as hen's teeth but it does hold legal weight. An IEP is supposed to be short term goals set with the school

One of my friends has a child in school with mine and he is regularly excluded for violence. He has 1:1 support and lots of different accommodations and spends lots of time out of the classroom with his 1:1 support, but sometimes something will happen and he will throw things / hit things / hit people or some combination of all that and the school sends him home. My friend has had to adjust his work patterns around significantly so he can always be 'on call' to go get him. He's P6 now so high school is looming and no one seems to know what to do for him.

They've never appealed an exclusion because the school really had no choice. The biggest issue is that the setting is inappropriate for his needs but they've been unsuccessful in getting him into a different setting so everyone is just trying to cope. It's really, really hard.