My ds is to be excluded as there is no help for him. Also they are now looking at special needs secondary school.

[HappyNewYearFeet06]

He was down for a mainstream secondary and it was named on his statement. From a meeting at school last night I found out that his helper that he has within the classroom has resigned and is leaving tomorrow and that when she has left there is no other help and so he will have to be excluded should anything go wrong and that will build up to a permanent exclusion. As for secondary in Sept, they are now saying he won't cope with mainstream and will need something else. The Ed Psych has named a school that has spaces but I have been told about this school and haven't heard good things. So where do I go from here????

Thanks. xx

Just a little word of advice. Do NOT tell the LEA you are looking at an independent special needs school. This sort of school will cost them money and they will fight you every step of the way. Do ring SOSSEN. They are brilliant and helping me.

I am sorry to sound so negative but trust no one connected to the LEA or on their payroll.

SOSSEN will guide you very well.

From what you have actually written, your child's statement seems a bit woolly. You need a reassessment to take into account the fact that he will be transferring to a senior school. You can request this reassessment yourself. It carries more weight if a parent requests it because if the reassessment is refused, a parent can appeal. If a school request an assessment and they are refused, they are not allowed to appeal.

Anyway, I am wittering away here. Hope you did manage to ring either SOSSEN or IPSEA today.

candlewax. The school we have found is LEA funded and the LEA need to refer him there. So how do I approach the LEA about it if I can't trust them???

Where do I start?????! Help!!

That is alright then! A lot of parents (me included) are looking at independent SEN schools which the LEA hate us for because it costs them extra money!

Oh ok, so an LEA funded school is ok to approach them for as it is them that need to refer? From what I understand!

UPDATE!

I phone sos;sen this morning who stated that the primary school he is at would be breaching the disability discriminations act and also the terms of his statement should they not draft someone in quickly to cover the support worker who is leaving. Also, that they can't temporarily exclude him and build it up to a permanent exclusion becasue they think it will 'help'!

They are sending out a list of names and numbers of people to contact about the secondary school dilemma so I look forward to getting that so I can get more advice about that part of the dilemma too!

I have left a message with the Ed Psych to phone me back as she was meant to before now and hasn't and I phoned LEA about ds being down for mainstream secondary and changing to special needs secondary and they said his cuurent school needs to hold an annual review where this is put forward and then the LEA will look at it once the annualk review is put in place.

Gosh, what a headache!!

Put a request in for an annual review to take place asap then.

I have got a meeting with the SENCO at school this afternoon so will put it to her then.

Ed Psych can't phone until the end of the week, gggrrrr. We are going away on Friday.

What you have described here is depressingly common.

Some pointers;

"Because we don't have an LSA" is not a recognised reason to exclude a child.

Basically the school will be clueless as to how to deal with your child.

They cannot appear clueless, so they make her/his "behaviour" the problem rather than their inability to engage with him.

They focus on the negative behaviour and then give themselves permission to exclude.

If they can dump a load of guilt on you at the same time so much the better.

It can be helpfull to mention that you know the act says they must fund 20 (might be 25 - I forget) hours of education based activity for him/her every week. This would have to start the day after he was permanently excluded.

You mention this because, naturally, they will not provide it, but if you comissioned it and then tried to recover the costs from the LA they would have no defence at the county court since they have a statutory duty to deliver.

I have known this work exceedingly well for parents in the past. Mention that you would be suing the lead councilor for education at her/his home address if you really want to make them squirm....

I know it's not a nice thing to have to do but it can be a big help getting your yp's needs met.

If he is statmented then the school has to provide support. His helper has resighned so the school should find him another helper.