Should my son take up ARP placement?

[MackenCheese]

Hi guys, short story ds 13 has asd and PDA. Huge emotional meltdowns and aggression last year. We got an ehcp during 1st lockdown and moved schools. There was about 60% attendance due to school refusal in the new setting, but OK towards Christmas.

This lockdown ds has refused the offered school placement, and is doing a small amount of work from home.
Now SENCo is suggesting he move to the ARP setting within the school (It has one for autism and semh ) so that he can access more help for social communications as outlined in his ehcp.
Should we say yes to an emergency review, with a view of moving him to the ARP? I worry that he doesn't want to be found out about his asd as he was only diagnosed at age 10 and still in denial as he's very bright.

What are the concerns about arps? Will he have access to the main curriculum or be sidelined??

Thanks for reading and replying..

You would be best asking the ARP. How ARPs run varies from unit to unit. Some are mostly self contained and pupils mainly stay within the unit, whereas others are mostly within mainstream.

Yes the SENCo said they aim for 80-100% time in mainstream and have interventions from the ARP. One of their arp students is doing a levels.

If that's the case then he will access the majority of the MS curriculum.

Thanks for replying. That's reassuring. I wouldn't want him to get sidelined, when he wants to be like everyone else.

Definitely worth exploring, especially as they differ and vary so much from school to school. Sometimes they even offer different children within the ARP different packages.

Thanks, they seem very much into tailoring to each child, so il check it out.

Well obviously the MS setting is not meeting his needs if he is school refusing and having meltdowns, so it makes sense to consider the ARP.

If he is struggling to accept his ASD this needs specifying in Section B of his plan (if it is not in already) and provision put in place to meet it in Section F.

And if support for social communication is already specified in his EHCP he should be getting it now - or are they suggesting more support in addition to what is already specified?

No, they are aware that they have not been meeting his needs with regards to social communication support, so the SENCo has called the annual review to get this in place via the ARP. Since the meeting was called, ds has failed to engage with this 3rd lockdown, and even though the school have sent us a laptop and offered him a place in school he just cannot/ will not engage. We will have several rounds of very stressful meltdowns and arguments just to get a book open. He spends his days glued to whatever is happening at nasa and spacex as well as China and other rocket launches. I'm waiting for him to get bored of that and move onto something else, but that day seems to be a long way off 😭. I'm just praying he will actually go into school when they reopen fully.... as he is saying now. Sadly he is not a man who keeps his word...