ADHD assessment and uncooperative school

[CookMeDinner]

We've asked DS's school to refer for an ADHD assessment and they keep saying they will but then they don't. It's been going on for a year. I think it's bc our kid isn't a behaviour problem at school so they don't think there's a problem.

We're looking at possibly going private but what happens with the school questionnaire in a case like this? We applied for an EHCNA and have now appealed the LA's refusal to assess. If that goes through, maybe they'd do an ADHD assessment as part of the NA but I've heard appeals can take a year. DS is in Y6 so we don't want to keep putting it off.

In some areas you can self refer for an ADHD assessment. Have you looked whether you can? If you can’t in your area, have you asked the GP?

Although there is still a wait, refusal to assess appeals are mostly paper based, so don’t usually take as long as refusal to issue and content/placement appeals, but it is unusual for LAs to agree to undertake an ADHD assessment as part of the NA.

Schools are generally pretty good at filling in a tick box questionnaire and emailing it back.

We had to do this for DD (private assessment) and I could tell that school were a bit hmmm about the whole thing. They're a whole lot less hmmm since she got the Dx and started meds and can suddenly focus properly in class...

Can you ask GP for a referral for ADHD diagnois? That's what we did. I'm sure school wouldn't have had a clue.