Is getting a Ehcp plan possible?

[Roseyposy]

My son has Aspergers syndrome and he attends secondary school, I've received a letter in the post telling me they are putting him into intervention as he has gone 3 sub levels down in his maths, he is on target with his reading and writing they are taking him out every Thursday for a hour to help him catch up. I was under the impression that because he has sen he would be placed on sen support and monitored,? to be honest he is working below nearly all his subjects and has gone 2 or 3 sublevels backwards except for English. I am trying to contact the sen department but they keep ignoring my voice mails but I want to be sure first I feel my son should have help in all subject areas not just maths

I am not an expert and hopefully somebody more articulate and knowledgeable will be here to clarify the ins and outs of the law and the code of practice, just wanted to say that nothing should stop you in pursuing an EHCP if you feel that is wat your DS needs.

Given that he went a few sublevels down, (I assume it is documented and you can show it), it shows that "the gap is widening", meaning the school needs to put in place more intervention. It also looks like the school does not fully understand his needs as they let his levels fall and did not put intervention in all subjects earlier. They seem to be scrambling to do that now, but not in all subjects, probaly because they don't have resources to do it in all subjects. This is showing that the needs of your DS, in order to close the gap cannot be met within the school resources, hence he might need a EHC assessment to understand what his needs are, what intervention is required and an EHCP to provide appropriate resources.

The good thing is you can request an EHC assessment arguing that the "gap is widening" instead of "narrowing" (code of practice lingo) and his needs are not fully understood. It is already established that he has SEN needs (ASD).

If you google and download the SEN code of practice and look carefully in the part on assessment and how to demonstrate inadequate progress. There are several tests on inadequate progress, "gap not narrowing" is just one of them. You could figure out what case you could make with the evidence you have.

You might also wright to the school, rather than calling and ask for a, Provision Map or IEP review meeting to discuss his falling levels and what interventions they are putting in place, and why not in all subjects, ask whether they have used all resources "delegated to the school". Ask for a copy of their Provision Map to see what thours their provision adds up to, basically trying to get more evidence that the school resources are insufficient. Usually the school would support your application for assessment and EHCP. They may tell you that they need to wait and see whether the new intervention worked. That is corect in law, but given that they don't have resources to help in all subjects, it is likely that your DS needs cannot be met within "resources delegated to the school", hence need an EHCP.

So, given falling levels, basically it might be that right now is the best time to get an EHCP. And there is no downside to the assessment.

Just t add that to request an assessment you need to write to the Director of Education in your local county council. IPSEA charity and SOS!SEN are good to get advice and some model letters.

You can request an assessment for an EHCP yourself, as the pp says. However, I would persist with trying to arrange a meeting with the SEN team at the school first as they would be required to submit a report for the EHCP and it may be worth checking that they are on the same page?

Thanks to you both for the invaluable help, it's been a rough ride for my son in secondary and it nearly broke us, I feel guilty as I should of nipped this in the bud earlier but allowed it to carry on for a year hence the gap has widened-this has happened since he was placed in learning support for his emotional needs he was doing OK academically in mainstream class but could not cope thanks again!