Issues with college

[alloalloallo]

My daughter is due to start her second year of a 2 year course at our local college.

DD has Tourette’s, pretty severe dyslexia, a recent diagnosis of ASD and ADHD. She also has what her neurologist thinks are absence seizures, she has issues with “locking” limbs (her muscles spasm and her hands will lock into fists, or her knee will lock and she’ll struggle to walk) and some other bits so they are looking at a possible diagnosis of FND, but we’re awaiting some tests results that we had to rule other stuff out.

Her first year was ok, they put some adjustments in place and she was fine. She was assigned a LSA, access to a quiet room, she was supposed to have a scribe, coloured overlays, disability related absences were supposed to be recorded separately to general absences, access arrangements were put in place for exams, and some other bits and bobs.

Half way through the year, her original tutor left and things started to slip and her adjustments weren’t being met. Her LSA was moved to another class, no one was unlocking the quiet room, tutor not making allowances for her disability when assigning her practical assessments (for example, insisting she do a certain task when her hands were locked, when another more appropriate task could have been chosen instead), disability related absences were being recorded as general “off sick”, etc, etc. Lots of meetings, reminders and phone calls from me, it would improve for a bit, then start to slide again and we limped on to the end of the year, however she completed all her assignments on time, with good results (all merit or distinction) and finished all work experience hours and practical assessments.

Her attendance wasn’t brilliant - we had lots of tests and hospital appointments in the last term, she had a period where her seizures were really bad, 2 weeks where both hands were locked and because her LSA had been moved she had no scribe, plus horrible anxiety around going into college as her needs and adjustments weren’t being met.

We were told at the end of last term that it is “unlikely” that DD would be accepted back in September for her second year due to her attendance.

I asked for a copy of her attendance report - DD couldn’t log into her college portal herself as they’d removed her log in already, so they emailed me a copy - I reminded them that disability related absences should be recorded separately, as agreed, so could they correct it and send it over again.

We we’re then asked to go in for a meeting with DD’s tutor. This is at the end of the month. I asked for DD’s student mentor to be at the meeting too, he is coming along with a head of another department.

I called a local SEN advocacy service yesterday for some advice, they’ve offered to come along to the meeting with us, the lady is on holiday this week so they’ll confirm next week.

In the meantime, what reasonably can we expect from college? DD is doing well despite her difficulties, her results have all been good and she completed everything to a good standard.

I kind of get a vibe that they want DD out

Any advice or suggestions very gratefully received!

Thanks!

Does DD have an EHCP? As answers will depend on that.

No. She doesn’t unfortunately. Sorry, I thought I’d included it in my OP

I was advised to hang fire on applying for the initial assessment until we had all results of tests and a diagnosis.

Sadly, that advice was wrong. You should apply for an EHCNA now, you don’t need a diagnosis, as that would provide much more support and protection. IPSEA have a model letter you can use.

DD was extremely ‘lucky’ the college provided an LSA without an EHCP, that is unusual due to a lack of funding. Access arrangements and a quiet space are reasonable though.


Remind the college DD is protected under the Equality Act, they are required to make reasonable adjustments and failing to do so is disability discrimination. In this situation, asking DD to leave due to her attendance when the absences are disability related is disability discrimination.

Try to call IPSEA or SOSSEN prior to the meeting. Be careful with SENDIASS, some are good but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies.

Thank you!

DD was super lucky to have access to the LSA. The LSA was the class LSA but assigned to DD on the basis that if she didn’t need her, the LSA would help with the rest of the class. The LSA has now been moved out of her class completely so they don’t have one at all.

The original tutor wasn’t replaced, they had other tutors covering the lessons. At the beginning, I don’t think the adjustments had been communicated properly to the remaining tutors, however, many phone calls and meetings later we were still having issues.

I’ve reminded the college of their responsibilities regarding disability discrimination, hence the meeting with every man and his dog at the end of this month.

Someone from SENDIASS is hoping to attend with us, just waiting for confirmation. I felt a bit ganged up on tbh.

I’ll re-look at the EHCP application.

Thank you!

Have you emailed the principal/head? If not, emailing them specifically mentioning disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments is likely to get their attention.

Thanks!

I hadn’t as I was waiting to see what the outcome of our meeting was, however, I’ve just had an email from her tutor stating that DD hasn’t completed her work experience hours so won’t be able to continue her course.

1. The hours have to be completed by the 31st August so she’s still got 2 weeks to do them anyway
2. She has done them, but can’t get into her college portal to log the hours to get them verified because they’ve already removed her from the system. The supervisor was supposed to log them for her, but hasn’t.

So, I’m now composing an email to the Principal.

Just read about what happened with your daughter and college
That is exactly what happended with my daughter too.
Word to word it read exactly what happened to us .
We live in cove/Farnborough Hampshire area