Have any of you got your ASD child into an independant Special School?

[farkthatforagameofsoldiers]

Can you give me some tips please and how you did it?

Ds is 8, in mainstream, fully statemented, we have also now been advised to seek a diagnosis of Dyspraxia. There is a local State Autism School nearby, which they say he is too High Functioning to attend, personally I feel this is bollocks but don't know how to fight it. He is not thriving in Mainstream, is aggressive and just being there has a massive daily impact on his sensory issues. We need to get him out.

So we are within distance of a very highly thought of Independent Autism School that caters for High Functioning kids as well so as we are having an emergency review this month have named this as the school I wish him to go to.

Now I am clueless. I am pretty sure the LA will not agree to it and have yet to even see the school as you can only attend on Open Days to view it and there haven't been any yet, I just wanted to put it out there.

What do I need to do now? Is it up to the LA to approach the school and assess suitability or can I do anything?

This has been going on for three years now. My ds is utterly miserable at school and I feel learning to manage his autism with aggressive behaviours that are now spilling into the home.

If someone could just give me a general idea of the next few steps now and some indication of what will happen next I would be so grateful.

that should be independent in the title.

Not sure exactly how it works but think maybe the independent school would do an assessment on your DS to see if their school is suitable for his needs and if so you would then need agreement of LA in order for them to fund? I guess it would be up to you to initially contact the school and ask about their admission process.

you may find that once you've asked for independent, state may suddenly become an option! Check sendist for appeals following annual review to make sure you've asked for the right things and on what grounds you can appeal if they say no. Make sure your requests are in writing.

what do the current placement say, have they said they can no longer meet his needs? This was the biggest help we had moving our dd (although not asd and to out of borough not to independent) along with backing from the ed psych.

the lea will probably send it to panel, if they agree to consult the school you want they will send a copy of the statement there and give the school a time limit to reply within as to whether they will offer your ds a place, they will probably want to assess him themselves. Then probably back to panel again to say yes or no to the offer. Panel may say no but you should be able to appeal, or they may suggest other schools for you to look at so knowing what provision there is in your lea will help a lot, especially if you've managed to go look round.

are parent parnership any good where you are, they may be able to offer some info and support. There's also plenty of info on ipsea, ace and sossen sites, definitely worth a look.

I am mid fight to get ds into Independent SS. I can tell you it is a long hard slog.Only yesterday the Ind SS assessed ds and have agreed they have a peer group and curriculum there for him. It goes to panel when the LEA have got the assessment report.
It hasn't been easy to even get the assessment as the LEA have to ask the SS to make an assessment, a parent can't request. And as Ninja says the school get the statement, then the LEA question them, then I threatened a formal complaint for procrastinating (past usual time to name the placement)then the LEA requested an assessment. Our LEA were questioning peer group and suitable curriculum so yours might do the same.
Ds current placement is in an autism unit attached to mainstream secondary with full time 1 to 1 support so for us there isn't anywhere maintained with more support than he already has.
The LEA might offer you a unit if they are available in your area I suppose.
I'd be slightly concerned that you can't view the SS unless on open days.I have visited three just phoned and made an appointment.How can you get a true picture of the school if you don't see it working as routine?
FWIW the school we want couldn't show us a particular upper floor because one of the boys was having a bad day so I did get to see it warts and all in the three and a half hours we were there.
It's been frustrating and stressful so far but we're at the last hurdle now and it will be worth it to get the placement we want. We have Parent Partnership involved and I am fortunate as the person supporting me has done the battle for her own child who is also at the Ind SS I want.
Wishing you lots of luck.

I send DD2 to a private ASD ss, mbut I have to pay, she can only stay there till shes 5years old and then I dont know what we will do.

We have been advised to look at an independent school that might be able to help our ds but have been warned that an independent school is not prohibited from excluding a child with a statement. Apparently it can then be difficult to get them back into the state system. Not sure how much of a problem this is. We will be asking lots of questions about how they would deal with the behaviour ds exhibits at school before making any decisions.

I used a very reasonably-priced but also v switched on advocate, called Fiona Slomovic, to fire off a couple of legal letters, after having a meeting with her and establishing what our case was. An advocate has the same knowledge of SEN law and court appearance rights as a solicitor, but is a lot cheaper!=

If your kid is failing in mainstream, and you can prove that their needs would be met in an independent school of your choice, it can be done - though you may have a fight on your hands. My boy is now in an independent ABA school and I did not (happily) have to go to tribunal or anything.

I used a very reasonably-priced but also v switched on advocate, called Fiona Slomovic, to fire off a couple of legal letters, after having a meeting with her and establishing what our case was. An advocate has the same knowledge of SEN law and court appearance rights as a solicitor, but is a lot cheaper!=

If your kid is failing in mainstream, and you can prove that their needs would be met in an independent school of your choice, it can be done - though you may have a fight on your hands. My boy is now in an independent ABA school and I did not (happily) have to go to tribunal or anything.

Thanks for you replies, going to have a proper read through now.

DS goes to an independent SS. We had to go to tribunal to have the school named on his statement. It's common for parents to have to appeal in order to get an independent school named, although some LAs agree to it before the tribunal. If you have to appeal, it can take 5 months for a hearing so it will be a long fight.

We used a solicitor for our case as it was quite complex. An advocate is a good cheaper option, or charities like IPSEA or NAS can provide support.

You will need to show that his current mainstream school cannot meet his needs and that no other cheaper school can meet his needs. Our LA wanted us to look at state special schools both in our county and in neighbouring ones, plus some cheaper independent SS's.

Some schools allow parents to arrange an assessment themselves, I viewed a lot of schools and sent DS's papers to them directly without waiting for the LA to agree. I would also be a bit concerned about only seeing the school on open days - I also viewed a school which had that policy and I felt they were less open and less helpful than other schools. Cast your net wide as your LA may come up with other suggestions and you'll have to explain why those aren't suitable.

My ds (ASD) aged 9 goes to an independent ASD school. It was a fight at tribunal to get the provision, but we managed it with IPSEA rep to help me prepare case. In my case the key was the proof that the LA special school had not been able to make any progress. I also had good independent witness (SALT) who had been working with ds for a long time. I have to say though that ds is very severely autistic and a lot of our case was focused on his inability to acquire key life skills at his LA school (toileting and eating)