sendist appeal

[showers]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can give me an insight of what to expect at tribunal. I have watched the video on sendist site and am now scared stiff.My son who has AS is going to secondary school in september, his statement as been chopped,changed and tailored so that he fits into a criteria of a school for behavioural,emotional and social difficulties which the LEA have put on his statement. We have applied for Mainstream with an IR and been turned down as there are only 4 places(disgusting.We applied for this school as we have had nothing but problems with the very small primary that he goes to at the moment, they haven't a clue when it comes to Aspergers!He is made to sit in the corridor for hours at a time, one rule for him and another rule for everyone else. He is no angel and he has got some anger issues(which doesn't surprise me with the ignorance he has to put up with at school.We went to visit this behavioural school and it was nothing more than a 'prison for kids'we saw a child being restrained by 3 members of staff(not the kind of thing that is needed for my son). Sorry that this post is so long but has anybody had any similar experiences???

We haven't had experience of tribunal (yet) and hoping not to have to go there but I would agree with you that a school for behavioural, emotional and social difficulties is very unlikely to provide an appropriate setting for a child whose primary need is AS. Our son also has AS and needs a calm small-scale setting with specialist teachers experienced in AS. Our experience was that the LEA went from denying any need for a specialist setting to agreeing the setting we wanted fairly soon after registering our appeal but we are still negotiating content of rest of his statement and may need to go to tribunal for that.

We found partnership with parents a useful source of support - coming to meetings with us to take notes and giving feedback on his statement, showing where it failed to match up to reports etc. We also got good advice from SOSSEN, IPSEA and the National Autistic Society and on here from other posters. They should be able to look at your case in more detail and advise whether you are likely to need to pay for private reports to support your case at Tribunal.

Good luck - it is horribly stressful but remember right is on your side.

Sorry, are the LA choosing the school in part 5? Pardon my ignorance but I thought you got to fill in that part. Have they said that no other school can meet his needs? Sounds like they are backing you into a corner. Definitely get some outside help. BESD school will not provide the role models children with AS desperately need. They are particularly vulnerable to poor role models. Good luck.

I also forgot to add that his marks at school are above average and the school LEA have named according to ofstead report no child leaves with a GCSE. I have received a letter this morning from school stating he has been disrespectful to the staff when they tried to dend him out of class for talking, others were talking aswell but they were just sending him out so he at first refused to leave so they have now said in the letter and i quote ''he has caused his classmates to suffer by having to witness his outburst of temper and defiance therefore from monday 14th of march to friday 18th march, he will be allowed to attend school but will be given an internal exclusion. That is, he will be placed at a workstation outside the classroom,he will be supervised and he will be given set work, he will not be allowed to partake in classroom activities during this time''. He has already spent all friday afternoon out of class!!!!A full week!! I think this is rediculous, am i being unreasonable???

I agree that it doesn't sound like they are managing your son correctly. What do they have in place to manage his behaviours ? Tribunal is ok but I would go with advice from ipsea or someone similar. There shouldn't be only 4 places at mainstream: you have a right to mainstream if that is what you prefer - I would go zto tribunal with the evidence that the school named is not suitable to his needs and prove the school you want is.

Believe me, tribunal is not easy but it doesn't sound like you have an option

It shouldn't be as hard (in theory) to get a place in mainstream for your ds - the sen code of practice emphasises that parents have the right to have their child educated in mainstream unless the school can prove it's not possible to make reasonable adjustments to meet their needs. Is it the case that you are seeking a place in a special unit attached to mainstream which is already nominally full or why only the 4 places?

Yes, we want our son to go to mainstream secondary that has an attached Integrated Resource Unit that is for kids that have ASD. We have been turned down because it's not in our catchment area(we havent got a school like this in our catchment area,but as we understand with SEN,catchment area shouldn't come into it). Also he is not being managed at his present primary school,they are not following some of his needs that are on his statement,this is causing no end of problems and is causing my son to become frustrated which is then leading to him becoming angry and he then is sent out of class. He is very talkative and is often sent out for talking but even if there are others also talking, he is the only one that gets sent out. They have in the past made him sit in corridor for upto 5 hours,no work to do and no one allowed to talk to him.As you can see by my last post,they now want to exclude him from the class for a week and we are not going to let this happen. I would't name my local mainstream school as we dont want him spending the next several years in corridors therefore we applied for mainstream with IR.Then if there is a problem in class he can then continue his work in the IR. The LEA have named a special school on his statement where not 1 child leaves with any qualifications, my son gets mostly A's in his report card,so we dont think its a suitable school.To the reason we are going to Sendist.

I think you have a good case - you need evidence that current school is not following statement - shaft writing a journal of every time they do things that are wrong - if you haven't started already ....

You have evidence the placement the Lea want is not suitable - you just need evidence that the school you do want can meet all his needs

Get hold of a sen code of practice and start quoting the lea from it - it's very helpful and a useful book