Pressured into sending child to mainstream school?

[vamkam]

David Cameron recently suggested that parents were being pressured to send their children to mainstream schools over special schools.
Do you agree with this Yes or No?

I am currently doing my dissertation and will use your responses in my findings, whilst I do not need you to reply with anything other than yes or no, your comments may be used without your user name within my study and I will take your partcipation as agreement to this.

Thank you very much for your time.

Yes. The SEN system is budget-led and LEAs don't want to spend money if they can avoid it. Special schools cost more. Some LEAs and the professionals within them will play down a child's needs to keep them in the comparitively cheap environment of mainstream school

Yes and special schools are kept cloaked in mystery while you are outside of that system and it's only by approaching the schools themselves that you can find anything out about what they do and who goes there. I love the stated ethos of inclusion but the truth is that it's actually financial concerns which drive inclusion not some ethical ideal.For children with certain problems, special schools are a far better option and a better path towards community integration as an adult.

Yes but this is because, invariably, mainstream settings do not have the time or resources to cope with a child with anything above 'normal' or 'average' needs.

Large class sizes, lack of resources and staff and a target driven agenda means there is a bureaucratic culture of 'ticking boxes' and producing 'data' which can be shown to outside agencies - the LA, Ofsted, etc. That is how a school is judged.

A school is not judged on how well it supports SEN children. Even if Ofsted are looking to tackle this on inspection visits, that will be based on data - i.e. are SEN children statistically producing the progress you expect? This has nothing to do with effective support.

So, inclusion is fabulous, and my son has a right to be at his school and I want him to stay there but in a class of 35 with a TA in class for 6 hours a week and no time or resources to offer support, he is home today because he is tired out with the stress of it all.

So you could put the question annother way - why should I be forced to consider special school because the mainstream can't offer basic assistance?

I have a child with ASD. ASD was not identified until she was age 17.
No teacher or Senior teacher had referred her to the SENCO.
I have a poor impression of Main stream schools capability to handle Special Needs.

Education Act 1996 Section 316

"Unless a parent indicates that they do not want their child educated in a mainstream school...an LEA must ensure that a child is educated in a mainstream school unless that is incompatible with the efficient education of other children."

In other words the default setting is mainstream. Many LEAs shut their Special Schools in the name of Inclusion so there were fewer places available and therefore parents would not be encouraged to name a Special School.
So the answer is yes, parents do feel pressured to put their children in mainstream, and yes, they feel they have to fight to get their children into Special Schools..

To add, I met a woman with a child with classic autism who was non-verbal and had learning disabilities. LA thought mainstream special school was fine for him and she had to fight to get him into a special school.

For inclusion there, read sit him outside a classroom colouring pictures.

It is certainly a lot easier to get your kid into mainstream than into a special school - though actually that presumption on the part of mainstream suited me, as there's what I wanted. Where I live, there are so few special schools that they are really cramming kids into mainstream, or mainstream units. We need more autistic ABA schools like the Fabulous Treehouse or Rainbow, where kids actually learn rather than are just child-minded till 18, and given some horse-riding lessons/swimming. Expectations are way too low in our state autism schools, particularly when it comes to reading etc. It is hard work to get some SEN kids reading, but I believe some of our establishment schools give up before even trying. They also do not tackle bad behaviours, as there is a patronising sort of "bless" attitude to SEN kids ("poor wee thing, let him spend half an hour licking a window, it's a sensory need he has")

I'm sure there are State SN schools which fail to help their pupils achieve their full potential but the school that my son is at and the other local school SN with an ASD unit which I visited are not like that at all. The curriculum is more rounded than in mainstream and so my son does spend more time on field trips (which sometimes are really more like "jollies") and swimming etc - this to me is not a bad thing and I wish MS education of NT children was more like this. My son (who is five and has ASD) is being taught to read although I am a little puzzled as to why his school (which goes up to 16 with the option of transferring to a SN secondary school at the appropriate time) offers other GCSEs but not English.

yes, as others have said because of the cost implications. It's not necessarily a bad thing, ms can work really well for some children but from my pov I would say it's hard, nigh on impossible, to get a decent statement in place to make ms work to it's best advantage. It's all well and good pushing ms but children have to be well supported by decent statements. For some children ms just won't work because of the amount of specialisms needed in one place, doesn't work out cost effective.

Yes in general no in my persoal experience. We have been very lucky. We could make the choice when DS started school, we opted for special school. AS he had a congenital condition and been in the system since birth it was not difficult for us to get a statement I am much more nervous about getting him into the right secondary special school.

Thank you everyone your comments have been very helpfull
Good luck in the furture.