Ds attempted suicide during GCSEs and now school won’t take him

[Sixthformentrynightmare]

He has an EHCP and the school where he has been for 5 years is named for him for 6th form and had said they could meet his needs.
During his GCSEs he messed up a paper, freaked out and ran out of school and tried to jump off a bridge and had to be restrained by police.
He was allowed to take the rest of his exams on condition that I sat outside the room, and did ok in them. Not as well as predicted but more than well enough for A levels.
Over the summer we have had appointments with CAHMS, who have now discharged him, and he is still seeing a social worker.
School have told us TODAY, the day before sixth form induction day, that they will not take him in the 6th form due to safeguarding issues.

(He was assessed for autism about 8 years ago and fell just below the threshold but with some autistic traits. He is on the waiting list to be reassessed. EHCP is nominally for anxiety.)

I can’t see what our options are. If his small, familiar local school doesn’t want him because they can’t keep him safe then how can a big, distant sixth form college realistically say that they will take him? How is he going to do his A levels? Spend 2 years in his bedroom online?

And how in God’s name can they have only told us today?

Is the school wholly independent? That influences what the school can do.

Do you think it is the right placement for him? If you don’t, there are other options - it doesn’t have to be in his bedroom online.

Does DS have ongoing MH provision in the EHCP?

It’s an ordinary state school, not even an academy.

Yes we absolutely think it’s the right place for him. We can’t work out what an alternative would be. There is another comprehensive in the town which doesn’t offer further maths, even if they would take him. There is a big sixth form college on the far side of our nearest city which would be a long commute and not an easy environment for him. The PRU doesn’t do A levels. The only other possibility I can think of is a private special school 45 minutes drive away which takes students paid for by the local authority but only ever after a tribunal due to the huge cost (and they don’t normally take new students for the sixth form).
I can understand the school’s logic in saying ‘we don’t think we can keep him safe’ but I don’t see how anywhere else could expect to be safer.

As the school isn’t wholly independent, if it is named in the EHCP they must admit him. If they refuse they can be forced to. Email the head reminding them of their duty to admit under s.43 CAFA 2014. Also email the Director of Children’s Services. If that fails email again also including the governing body if applicable threatening judicial review.

If you think it is the right place then you can challenge this. Just so you know all the options, if you didn’t think it was the right place you could also look at EOTAS (which doesn’t have to be at home in the bedroom, or even at home at all), although may need an appeal too, but if the school is right for DS don’t be forced into something else.

Thank you.
Head says this is a safeguarding matter not an EHCP matter. I assume that means it’s a loophole to the whole ‘having to admit them if they are named on the EHCP’ thing.

Section 43 of the CAFA 2014 doesn’t have a safeguarding exception like the HT is saying. Settings can still exclude, but that isn’t the case in your case and even if it was they would still have to follow the statutory exclusion and suspension guidance.

That’s really good to know, thank you.

Can you point out that rejecting him from the school is likely raise the risk, not reduce it? And also that the incident occurred out of school time also.

Fucks sake OP, I hope you get this sorted. Why would school think it would be acceptable to put this stress on him with no notice whatsoever. If I was him I'd feel like I was being punished for what happened, and that is truly shit. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Schools can be wary of pupils with self-harming. In our case we were delighted when the HT of an EBD school said they couldn't take ds2 on these grounds as we did not want him to go to that school anyway. BUT given the statistics of self-harming in young people I am pretty sure that self-harming on its own is not sufficient grounds to refuse a mainstream placement. The question is what additional support does your ds need to reduce the risk - was he getting the full exam accommodations for instance e.g. room by himself, extra time, rest breaks all of which might reduce the stress to more manageable levels. Is there any additional support that could be offered in the classroom or 1:1 work done with your ds to help him learn how to manage his stress levels. If you could come up with a support plan the school might be more willing to reconsider.

Hi all.

He is back in school today.

Our wonderful social worker phoned the headmaster and proposed an alternative safety plan. Yesterday the details were hammered out at a looooong meeting including the LEA SEND lead person and the social worker, me and my husband and some relevant staff. The social worker talked about the principle of ‘safe risk’ which accepts that you are never going to be able to guarantee safety 100% but you can extend the person’s freedom gradually. So we are beginning with quite a tight safety plan as he settles into 6th form with us taking him in and collecting him and his being supervised for free periods. It will be reviewed after 4 weeks with a view to him having more freedom if we are confident his mental health is ok.

I think the fact the headmaster went straight to the nuclear option meant that the LEA had to be involved in the safety planning. They’re also getting support from an educational psychologist and clinical psychologist.

We went into the meeting with all our ducks in a row re the law and appeals process and were relieved we didn’t have to pull any of that out because the meeting was all about how he (and the school) could be supported. Up until now the school has been wonderful about supporting him which is why it came as such a horrible shock.

Now we’re all just keeping everything crossed that he will settle in and it will all go ok. Obviously the stress of the last few days won’t have helped but at least it was resolved quickly.

Thank you all for your supportive comments x

Excellent news. Thank goodness you have a good social worker and I hope it all goes well. For what it's worth ds1 found his first set of formal exams extremely stressful but once he knew he could achieve a pass later ones much less so so hope this is the same for your ds.