Ok enough is enough! Statement, MS School, desperately need advice please.

[shimmerysilverglitter]

Ok, have posted about ds before and had some great advice. He is HFA (7). Will try to keep this brief.

He has been in MS for 2 years now. He has 32 hours 1:1 provision, although he only had someone with him in mornings as they were unable to appoint anyone suitable for the afternoons . Most afternoons I would go in to find him on the computer, not doing anything. At his last statement review we requested a change of placement to an ABA school. We were refused on the basis that he is too high functioning for them.

Within MS so far this term, he has run away and been missing for 45 minutes on one particular day (we were not informed until afterwards) and I have called in twice for meltdowns. Towards the end of last term in desperation after he came home with a facial injury after being restrained I started to bring him home in the afternoons and having been refused a change of placement requested that this become a permanent arrangement (flexi schooling arrangement). The panel sat last week and agreed. However yesterday the school called me in and told me that they are not meeting his needs and we need to make a strong case once again for a change of placement. YES I KNOW!

My questions are, what now? I cannot and will not keep sending him into this environment for daily meltdowns, they are clearly unable to meet his needs and he is being restrained almost daily. Although the panel have just agreed to flexi schooling it is clear that this is NOT going to work, I purely suggested this to alleviate the current situation and because he did not get a change of placement. Am I able to appeal it and say basically "sorry things have changed, that is not going to work anymore". The school asked me to keep him off today (I was glad to, in fact I don't want to ever send him back again!) as they have a "difficult day going on today".

Please any advice welcome. Can you tell me about IPSEA, is this the kind of case they would help with? Things have come to crisis point and right now I cannot send ds back into that environment. Thanks for any help.

He was very recently at panel, in the last two weeks but no official decision as yet. That was an Emergency Review. But what I asked for in that review - flexi schooling - is not the right option now, incidents over the past few weeks have confirmed this. He needs a change of placement, no two ways about it. I was only really asking for the flexi schooling as he did not get into Special School at the previous panel and I was desperate to alleviate his current situation. Once I get the official decision will I be able to appeal even though it is what I originally asked for in the first place? If I can that is what I will be doing.

Yes, you can now appeal to SEND following a review, if the LA refuse to amend the statement. If the LA do amend the statement, you can appeal against that too. It doesn't matter if that was what you originally asked for in the first place.

You should get a letter notifying you of the LA's decision and you'll have two months to lodge an appeal. It takes about 4-5 months after that to get a hearing date, although the LA may cave in before then.

You do need to be clear about what provision you're asking for and research it carefully to show why it's the only suitable provision. But you'll have time to do that with the timescales involved.