Asd and 2 day exclusion

[bookwormnerd]

My son is 5 years old and in reception, he has autism and sensory processing difficulties, he is mostly non verbal. He has been excluded from school as he bit an adult, we have had issues with him being physical at school towards the adults mainly due to their lack of understanding and failure to properly implement sensory breaks as stated in ehcp (though they say they are doing this it is obvious they are not). He has very little speech and is physical no where else than school as they are not managing his sensory needs and he feels overwhelmed, they are also not picking up cues of when he is stressed. We are working towards a special needs school but obviously takes time. Is it legal for the school to have excluded him when he does not understand what he did wrong and that it is related to his asd?

Do you have formal exclusion paperwork?

Is the EHCP specific and quantified? If so and DS isn't getting the support in his EHCP complain to the LA. IPSEA have a model letter.

Schools can not exclude for something that happens because of the child's disability if the school are not making the adjustments they should be.

Have you asked for an early review of the EHCP?

We have an early review organised as the school have specified cant meet his needs. They are saying making adjustments but not seeing it in reality. The council are involved as on reduced timetable. I have the letter now

Thankyou for the answer, hopefully we sort something tomorow. I'm going to ask for evidence of the adjustments, they just want to off role him as fast as possible. Unfortunately that is really hard to prove and school have done before.

Perhaps the school and LA need reminding part time timetables are illegal unless they are short term with the aim of reintegration.

They also have a duty to protect other children and staff and ensure their education is not compromised.
They have to weight up the pros and cons.
What was it about this school that made you feel it was the correct place for your child? Do they have the skills he needs?

Cabbage, the education of other pupils wouldn't be compromised if the school provided the adjustments within the EHCP! OP's DS is also much less likely to lash out if the school met his needs. They can not exclude because they have failed to provide the provision in his EHCP.

Bookworm, I’m really sorry that you’ve found yourself in this position. My autistic son was also a biter when he was in Reception, it’s a difficult place to be. Everyone has really strong feelings about this and my experience is that everyone’s advice tended to be quite polarised. The truth is, finding what works with our kids in school is an ongoing process. Even if the school is carrying out all of the suggestions on the EHCP they may not work, or may not work anymore, or may not work all of the time. And it only takes a moment of it going wrong for our kids to behave in a way that is communication for them but scary for others. I was lucky that he wasn’t my first child to go through the school and so I already had a good relationship with the staff and so communication with them was slightly easier, but still tricky. The only advice I would give you is to not rush to judgement about anything before you meet with school staff and have a longer talk about all of the issues that have been raised here. You need to find out whether they are using the recommendations, are they working? What barriers are they facing? Does the EHCP need to reviewed and changed? There will be a parent partnership service in the local authority, who stand apart from the authority, and their job is to support parents in this position. I’d contact them ASAP too. Good luck, my love, it will get better x

Just be careful with SENDIAS, they can be brilliant, but they are not fully independent of the LA. They get LA funding so will stick to the party line.

I have been working with the school with weekly meetings, offered to back up stuff at home, agreed to reduced time table and tried to give suggestions from what did at home, he had never been physical before starting school and is only at school now. The head teacher decided after 2 weeks he should be at special needs school, have also now heard of 4 children all with special needs also pushed out of school.
The council who were at first meetings said that I could not have offered more. I dont want him being physical and on multiple occasions have said using a sensory area outside of classroom will work better as he is overwhelmed by amount of children and noise and to do sensory breaks when shows first cues of distress but his sensory break is a box in the classroom.
My eldest goes to the school and they spoke the right words when decided to go there but experience is the school dont want the extra work. I told them we will cut hours even more as to be honest the school are making him anxious and the headteacher has made it very clear they cannot meet his needs so hoping to basically just hold a place until we can hopefully get place at right school. We basically decided to ring sendias as will be helpful to have someone else at meeting for ehcp review. Family support who came with me about time table were brilliant when I did. The head teacher has tendency to talk in circles and if you ever say anything remotely negative she goes on defensive and attacks. Many parents have found the same, having another professional there means she is forced to keep on track. When I meet senco meetings tend to be productive, the headteacher is not good at communication and tends to try bully you and she is usually one I see. The teacher is young and tends to just roll her eyes and does not listen to what you say. I have told them on multiple occasions I want to work together but school have decided they cant meet his needs so dont want to really try. The ehcp was clear what needs were and I wish the school had turned down if felt could not have met. I sorted out meetings including his speech therapist, myself, nursery one to one and an autism support worker who knew my child well at school before he went so they had full picture of needs. I hid nothing. I shared all stuff given to me by hospital relating to needs. I was a teacher so wanted to give the school and my child the best possible chance. I had a good relationship with staff before. On my elder childs last report the teacher even thanked me for how much I do to support the stuff they do in school at home. I would go to head teacher to thank and praise teachers who had worked with oldest. My little boy has had a totally different experience, I so wanted it to be positive even if we ended up at special needs school. I fully agree staff should feel safe. However I feel the school should also be making sure they are trying everything to make my son feel safe, creating a sensory diet and making sure they do individualised planning to try and meet his needs to try and prevent it happening again. I have worked with them every step of the way. But when we talked about going forward in meeting the head teacher just kept going on about not being able to meet needs and that she will exclude happily again.
My major issue is I dont want to ping pong ball him around schools so we could take to another mainstream in short term and then need to go to special needs school but that will be unsettling for him. If I home school which is what school want to push for which is obvious it will be harder to get him a place at a school right for him. It's a total mess and I have no idea how to stop physical as not doing at home, they wont do sensory suggested ( I even offered to show them what occupational theropy we do at home and was refused) and keep reilliterating that they cant meet his needs.

Sorry for how long that was and thankyou so much for replies

Have you involved the governors?

Much to the upset of the head teacher my husband spoke to the governor who is in charge of sen because we know him just for some advice. We will be making a complaint as we felt it has been dealt with in an unprofessional manner.

We had not really wanted to involve before as are trying to maintain a working relationship

Can I suggest you don't approach any other Governors.

The SEND one can not be involved now or sit on any appeals panel and you don't want to limit yourself any more.

Thanks for the advice. It's very much appreciated

Unless the part time timetable is short term with the aim of reintegration then it is illegal whether you agree to it or not. Do not deregister him. It is much easier to get support when on someone's roll. If DS becomes too anxious for school get him signed off sick and then the LA become responsible for providing education.

Follow up conversations and phone calls with emails to create a paper trail.

Just be careful with SENDIAS, they are not completely independent of the LA. They receive funding from them so will ultimately tie the party line.

IPSEA and SOSSEN are useful resources, and both have advice lines.

The council must have time tables sent to them every week, I have also made a paper chain with emails so local authorities know what going on,
I have been backed up partly by person from council who was at first meetings in first half term where she has backed up with several of her bosses that the school were being difficult, she rang me several times to check I was ok because of how head teacher dealt with meetings and she knew we were not happy. We did not really want him to be in school so little time but the school have been very opposed to increasing time. I am going to call a couple of other mainstream schools neer us which are smaller to see if they would take him as he is finding big class stressful. They are not working to increase and have now firmly taken the line written on multiple paperwork that they cannot meet needs. We are having annual review, though I actually dont disagree on alot of ehcp and is not that old. I dont think they will change that much. They basically want to tick box cant meet needs. Special needs application is also in but most provision does not start till year one. I will look at those resources, thankyou so much. Hopefully we will sort something. To be honest I will not be shocked if he excluded again this week. It also says on paper work they will do this. They were not overly happy I asked for a photocopy of the meeting notes they took. Its impossible as he is having sensory melt down due to sensory processing issues due to asd so it is not pre meditated on intentionally naughty behaviour. The behaviour only occurs at school apart from maybe one or two times grabbed hair to pull you closer so I cannot really work on behaviour at home. He does not understand what he has done is wrong, he is trying to communicate. They have said that their sensory box is adequate so they will not be changing anything apart from less time.

If you threaten judicial review for failure to provide full time education and unlawful exclusion (and failure to provide provision in EHCP if DS isn't getting provision in section F and it it specific and quantified) you may find the LA and school spring into action. If not SOSSEN may be able to help you with a pre action letter.

You may find this case against school governors interesting too.

Thankyou, we have been basically been bullied in to stupidly short time at school by the threat of exclusion now. With new time table I wont even have time to get home before turning around. We were made to feel like awful parents for wanting till break time as he was so upset at school. Its difficult as he cant even properly transition before he is out the door. I asked for him to be allowed to do forest schools where I would volunteer to come with him as he loves been outside. I was told no as the head teacher did not want other parents to see him. This was said before any of the physical started. Unfortunately the la seem happy as long as she sends time tables in each week with a list of reasons she cant increase