ASD & Disability Discrimination at school?

[gigglinggoblin]

If anyone knows anything about this I would be really grateful.

My son is diagnosed autistic. The school have acknowledged he has organisational dificulties. When we met to discuss transferring him to secondary (he is yr7) I made it clear homework would not be done at home, school said no problem, we have homework club. Fab.

Problem arises. School says noone can actually take him to the club. He knows where it is, he needs to be independant. Whether or not he needs to go is random. It is not at a scheduled time. He cannot do this and has never been able to. And now he is getting detentions for not doing homework.

If a kid in a wheelchair needed to get upstairs and no one helped they wouldnt be allowed to punish that child for not getting upstairs. I am wondering if this is a similar enough situation to ask school if they are breaking the disability discrimination act.

If anyone has advice or opinions they would be most welcome. I need to call school tomorrow and somehow be polite.

There is something in the DDA (an example) about a dyslexic child where a class was given homework by the teacher in such circumstances that the dyslexic child was not able to write it down, not remembering it so not completing it and getting detention. This was an example of the school not making reasonable adjustments. Sounds like your son's school are not making reasonable adjustments for him either.

doesn't he have TA support in school?

Yes he has a one to one TA for 25 hours. No one can take him because its during lunch. I wondered about the reasonable adjustments but cant find the bit I need. That example is great, thanks :)

Find out whether the local authority has a special school for ASD children.

Are there any Special schools for ASD in neighbouring local authorities?

A special school might not be right for your child as they may be more accademic than such a school can offer. If he is coping well with everything else then such a move could be a step in the wrong direction.

This whole situation is disgraceful giiglin. You must put a complaint in writing to the head teacher and to the LEA. request a meeting and contact the Autism Society who can point you in the correct direction for paper work. I'm sure they are breaking a discrimination law.

You may find that not all teachers are aware of the difficulties ASD and homework as schools sadly lack any decent training. Ensure all teachers are aware. If detention can be covered by staff then so can a homework class. ( just for a little info-in my 13 years working with ASD I can tell you that detention is NOT a approriate sanction for a child.)In my school TA's often swap round their lunches to allow for someone to be supervised.

Soory I am starting to rant but this irritates me so much

"Yes he has a one to one TA for 25 hours. No one can take him because its during lunch."

• is the TA support statemented?

My DS had this lunch/breaktime problem so the school asked the LEA to extend his statement to fund provision at those times.

And we got it, I should add :)

Have never understood why children are considered to be able to have a break from their autism when staff do!)

so right mumi as usual its all to do with funding