EP, statement, sigh

[mariamagdalena]

Advice needed from people who did / didn't manage to get a statement for their child. How much of a problem do you think it is it if the LA EP's reports are always along the lines of 'he seems ok to me' and 'the measures in place are great?'. DS is doing ok, but mainly because of hours and hours of targetted home-made therapy every week.

The school know there are probems and are doing their best to handle them, with some degree of success. Home is very challenging, and much of this is because of displaced school anxiety. OT and clin psychology reports are coming, paediatrician says asd adhd anxiety and sensory problems. I know there are language issues too but I was told SLT here don't do school age assessments if they speak ok.

I'm wondering what to do if the LA won't assess / won't statement. Whether it's best to fight now, or document everything and wait till 'failure to make adequate progress' has become more cut and dried.

Hmm, EP's report is really quite important. Do you agree with what it says? Have they made a mistake? Will you challenge it? Do the other reports seem more accurate, paint a different picture?

I have to say it is becoming harder and harder in my experience to get SA started. Failure to make adequate progress seems like such a shame, we are setting our children up to fail!

You can appeal if they refuse to assess, but you'll need better evidence to make sure it succeeds next time.

Sorry, more questions than answers, but my DS did get a Statement without need for appeal. Others on here may have better advice.

If you think the support he gets in school is not adequate, then request a statutory assessment. A statement only provides (usually) for school/term hours, so regardless of what you do at home, if he doesn't get sufficient support at school to participate, to learn alongside his peers, to reach attainment with his peers, or to ensure his safety and wellbeing, you can prove the need for additional support.

Is he on school action plus? If so, you can also provide evidence about how/why this hasn't worked.

If sa is given the go-ahead you will get a separate EP report done specifically for the assessment, so I don't know how relevant the previous reports would be (or even whether they'd be seen by the panel), so don't worry too much at this stage about that. And you can always try and get the EP to visit ds at home when he's doing the sa report so he can see what ds is like out of school.

Can't really tell you any failsafe tips for guaranteeing a statement though, we're going through sa atm but haven't got the draft through yet - and am expecting to have to appeal, appeal and possibly tribunal anyway...

Sorry, I'd assumed you were in the process of requesting statutory assessment already and you were anticipating being refused.

Watching with interest our LEA have agreed to assess dd 3.8 ASD but my concern is the EP is only visiting the preschool next Monday afternoon to do one observation.
How can she gauge my dd's needs in one hour and she is going on the one day of the week that her keyworker/senco doesn't work grrrrr!

Thanks guys. The EP has seen him via SA+, the decision about whether to agree to stat assessment is pending. He is making quite good progress academically with SA+, and there is some progress though I think not enough with social and communication. The private psychologist went into school recently and was persuaded that formal testing wd not be beneficial at this stage. Her recommendation as to what we should do next is due soon.

So I think I'll dust off the Hanen course and forget any extra help from school.

Ellen, the other reports do say different, but of course none are school based. And the EP report can't really be challenged as although I don't recognise my child in what it says, it carefully sticks to 'I observed x, mrs teacher says y'.

Interestingly, the playground comments (children and parents) about how they perceive DS give a much more familiar reflection of the DS I know and love.

Actually you can challenge the EP report. We've just done this with the one that our LA EP did as part of the stat assessment. He had misrepresented my views, and had (in my view) given far too much credit to the nursery for the progress ds has made (which has all been down to ABA). I wrote a supplementary letter to the SEN panel which I forwarded to him - he then changed his report and resubmitted it. Though if he couches his words carefully by using 'my observations' etc it might be more difficult - but if there is anything which you can provide evidence is untrue you can challenge it.

Anyway, that aside... if you are actually happy with the support ds is getting on SA+ it might be a struggle to get a statement. And you might just end up with the same number of hours that he gets anyway with SA+.

How are the school measuring his progress? Academic achievement is one thing, but as you say, the social/communication side is as important, and the older he gets the more complicated this will get, and might inevitably affect his academic progress.

FWIW if I was you, and happy enough with how things are atm, I would wait a while till you are sure you can provide enough evidence that SA+ is definitely not enough, then go for it. But I wouldn't wait too long. How old is he?

Hi Bialystock

DS is 7, and the good part of the current support is that it is flexible, discreet, appropriately differentiated and often integrated into whole-class strategies. The teacher has clearly had substantial experience of dc with adhd and some training in asd and is applying what she knows for the benefit of all the kids in the class, not just ds. Plus he is bright, has been taught a lot of strategies at home and his dad and I are doing a huge amount in support of the school-related needs, and this of course does help.

Despite all of this input, the social and communication gaps are widening. Which is very obvious to me, but neither the senco nor the EP appear to be able to recognise that there is a gap, because 'the other children like him'. So his invisible (substantial) impairment is invisibly (substantially) deteriorating despite being managed with invisible (substantial) help.

I'm in two minds whether to fight a refusal to assess now (applicaiton already gone in), or if we should accept it, log it, and as you say, concentrate on gathering more evidence in preparation for another go a bit later.