If a child is currently in a special school, where does the law stand on parental right to chose between special/mainstream when annual review time comes round?
Basically dd was in mainstream with a full statement, it ended disastrously because the LSAs changed all the time, which unsettled her, and had the minimum training. She moved to a special school where she has access to a neighbouring mainstream school. She attends a class two years below her chronological age some of the time - the amount varies hugely depending on how she's coping.
The statement annual review is imminent and from various comments made I suspect the LEA will want to put her back in mainstream. They once said the difference between full support in mainstream and a special school place, financially, was negligible, but actually she needs transport to a neighbouring LEA because there's no appropriate special school nearby, and she needs a chaperone to go to the mainstream, rather than being in her special school class all the time where they can manage with less than 1:1 cover. So it's turning out to be more expensive than they originally thought. I'm sure they will argue that she is doing so well within the mainstream class that she should go back to mainstream full time. She is managing well, but every now and then we have a huge blow-up and she is away from mainstream for days at a time, but catered for brilliantly in her special school where they can keep everything low key. At the moment, for example, the mainstream tutor is saying she is taking up too much attention so can't attend for a few days. This is fine with us - they are brilliant at judging what she can and can't cope with, and her support staff are highly trained.
I know from bitter experiece that if she was in mainstream pure and simple, these 'episodes' would result in either exclusion or a quiet phone call suggesting I pick her up and take her home for the rest of the day. She's what they'd call in Scotland 'educationally fragile', and has lots of things making it difficult for her to learn, but no over-riding disability. Just a bit of this and a bit of that - dyspraxia, speech issues, sensory issues, ADHD, and on top of all that some emotional stuff. She doesn't fit the mould for any of the 'specialist' special schools for things like dyslexia or ASD, and everyone agress an EBD school would be inappropriate.
When she was in mainstream we were told we had no choice over her continuing there - she had to go to a special school. The reason was that her outbursts were too disruptive - they just didn't have the training or the sense to handle her well in the first place, take her out of the class for some time-out etc. At the time we were so fed up with things that we didn't question this, although we fought for a special school that had links with a mainstream. And our experience of her special school has been great. But apparently now she's in danger of no longer fitting the criteria because she's in mainstream too much...
Have rambled a bit but my basic question is - given that nobody is suggesting that she no longer has the same special needs she originally had when forced out of mainstream, and given that her current placement is working brilliantly, is it possible for them to insist she goes back to mainstream?