Can anyone tell me about problems of trying to choose/get the right school?

[Maryadvicenow]

Hi. I work for a charity called Advicenow. I'm trying to produce a guide for parents of disabled children about how to choose a school, and what rights they will have when they are there (and how to enforce them when that is not what happens). I want to produce something that is genuinely helpful. I'd really like to speak to mums who have been in this position to find out about the problems they encountered, things they wanted information about but couldn't find, things they found confusing or unhelpful,and anything else that would tell me what I should try and include in this guide to make it as helpful as possible.

If you have any thoughts that could help me please post them below - or email me at
[email protected]

Many thanks

ps. The guide will be free, and we'll be trying to get it to as many parents with children with disabilites, SENs, or health conditions as possible - so any help you do give me will be put to good use/not someone's profit.

What I would have liked information on is:

what are the rules governing statementing and are they nationwide or confined to the individual LEA?

(a spokeswoman for our LEA told me they do not statement for physical disability as a matter of principle, which means a child whose learning is held back by physical problems- gets no access to funds; we have been told we have to pay for everything ds needs or he won't get it)

is there any way of putting pressure on a school to support a disabled child other than sueing them under the Disability Discrimination Act(scary, time consuming and potentially expensive)? what are the first steps once you have ascertained that the headteacher and the governors are actively unhelpful?

who is above the Education Welfare Officer, should you have a run in with one of those? (thankfully not a current concern for us, but it has been, and is for many parents of children with health problems)

you should definitely include information on home education as a positive choice for many children with SEN. You could try getting in touch with the HE Special people, or at the very least, give information about this book

I meet so many home educating families who say "I wish I'd known. Jimmy was always going to be square peg, round hole in a classroom; we are so much happier now..."

my son has aspergers and cant cope with mainstream school the local high school let him wonder out into the street and he was bullied and did not even know he could go to the sen base he was not looked after so we took him out. the other 2 local high schools are full and one told me their school would not be suitable for my sons needs the other told me their school would not be suitable for my son! i have now been home schooling my son which is exhausting as his concentration span is low. im trying my best and i want nothing but the best i can get for my children but im unable to provide him financially with all of the courses he can obtain in school yet there are no school with places or suitable for 30 miles and i have other children to collect from school so i cant drive miles to take him to a school. we are looking to move house where there is a suitable school for our son and somewhere our other children will also be happy. the district im in has a terrible lea and im not happy with the way they work and have been house hunting since we arrived here 9 yrs ago.

That's really helpful- thanks cory, ommmward and tomboymom. I will definitely try and include it. if anyone else has any ideas in the next 3 weeks or so, that'd be great.

Local groups can often be supportive - NPPN or Mencap.

For bullying, sometime primary schools in particular need prompting to remind them that this is a child protection issue and that they may be able to access advice from the local authority - there may be a high incidence officer for example.

Litigation is a nightmare:expensive, stressful and slow, but there are other options if you run into trouble - mediation from organisations like Centre for Justice or CEDR