meeting with senco tomorrow re asd sons school refusal any suggestions would be most welcome

[autumnsmum]

hi posted the other day about my sons school refusal he has been going in but with only a half day on monday and a lot of tears and distress at other times. we are meeting the senco tomorrow to discuss the situation . He doesnt have a statement yet so i wonder if that will be mentioned , i am also wondering if a special school might be the solution as he seems to be finding mainstream to much he is in year one and to be honest if we are having these problems already i cant imagine how he will be at say age ten thanks in advance

Before you go down the statementing route - if you do decide that's necessary - you will need to be able to show that the school have put in place all the strategies they can to help at school action and school action plus level and that these still haven't helped or helped enough. So I would be asking what help the school can offer from their own resources and what help from outside agencies she thinks might be useful: possibly autism outreach, CAMHS , the Educational Welfare Officer who ends up getting involved anyway if you have several weeks of unauthorised absences but who can advise at any stage.

It's probably a bit late for tomorrow but I found it really useful any time Partnership with Parents were able to come into a meeting with me - they will take notes and write up minutes afterwards as well as offering moral support. A sympathetic friend or relative can do the same thing if you're comfortable with that. Otherwise jot down what notes you can yourself and email to Senco afterwards. It's always a good idea to keep records of what has been agreed.

Hope you get the help you need.

If at all possible someone else should go along to this meeting with you.

I would also try and talk to the National Autistic Society if you have not already done so.

Is DS on any plan like School Action Plus currently?.

You can apply personally for a Statement; you do not need anyone's permission to do this. Statements can however, take six months to set up if the LEA agree to assess.
www.ipsea.org.uk have model letters you can use re statementing.

Hi

re pinks comment:-

"Before you go down the statementing route - if you do decide that's necessary - you will need to be able to show that the school have put in place all the strategies they can to help at school action and school action plus level and that these still haven't helped or helped enough".

Actually this is not the case; you can apply for a Statement wihout having been on either SA or SA plus. In your case and given your DS's school refusal as well I would certainly be applying personally for a Statement asap. The school in the meantime need to get outside help in for example Autism outreach.

Experiences with Parent Partnership can be mixed; some work very (perhaps too) closely with their LEA and are thus not fully impartial. You are better off seeking advice from fully independent organisations like IPSEA, SOSSEN and ACE to name but three.
The NAS too can also advise.

If you want him in Special School you will almost certainly need a Statutory Assessment and a Special School named in Part 4 of the Statement. It takes 6 months for the Statement to come through . You can apply for a Statutory Assessment yourself. The IPSEA website has model letters you can use.If the Statementing process has already started sorry- not really clear from your post.

A lot will depend on the SENCo. You need to know if he settles down once he is there, or whether he continues to be distressed.

He might not continue being like this. There could be particular reasons why he is unhappy. It could be related to the classroom itself or the children, or the staff. Try not to look too far ahead. At the moment is you can reach an agreement about how often he will go to school and for how long that will help. Also will they be able to provide support for him when he is there.

thanks so much for all your help sorry i didnt make it clear that the statementing process hasnt started , i do indeed hope to discuss how much they want him to attend , obviously i would like him to be there all the time and how they will manage him while he is there once again thanks for the help

Please - don't refer to it as school refusal.

Children do not naturally refuse to go to school - they do so when they are beijng asked to stay for many hours a day in an environment which they don't understand and is not sufficiently supportive - which is the case for your DS whose needs have not yet been fully assessed.

If you continue to refer to it as 'refusal' you will be making them think that it's all his own fault and that he has the ability to stop refusing - he probably doesn't.

The LA will latch on to 'refusal' and see it as a behaviourial issue - not an SN issue caused by ASD.

You need to start taliking in terms of him not being able to go to school as the support there is inadequate.

Attila is right re being able to apply for a statutory assessment at any point and maybe when our ds first started school refusing I too readily accepted the school's line about needing to show they had done x, y and z before we were likely to have success with getting lea's agreement for statutory assessment. At the time we took their word for it because of the fear of having to wait 6 months to reapply if we ended up being turned down or being fobbed off with a note in lieu.

But other people may well have had different experiences of succesful applications from first raising concerns with the school or being at a similar crisis point to school refusal. I should have asked just that on here 8 months ago...

Anyway hope something useful comes out of tomorrow's meeting - let us know how you get on.