statement question

[paranoid2]

Hi

I have a DS who has had a statement for the last 2.5 yrs
He is currently in yr 5 and in a unit attached to mainstream. At the moment we are thinking about the transition to secondary and the school have requested that he is reassessed in November by the EP with this in mind, and also because some aspects of his previous assessment were inconclusive, in that the EP felt that he may be capable of achieving more but that time would tell. His original statement recommended that he either stay in mainstream with some support or move to the unit. We chose the unit as we felt he would receive a greater level of support and I believe we made the right decision. There is not an option where we are, for him to move to a unit attached to secondary school, its either mainstream or a special school. There are a couple of good secondary schools nearly with good reputations for special needs and the lower ability classes are quite small.
My concerns are ? if we decide we want him at mainstream and the EP feels that he should be at a special school (and I presume she would be recommending that his statement would be amended to reflect this) , would he still receive support if we sent him to mainstream? I?m not saying that we would go against her recommendations but would like to know what our options are . Thanks

Of course.

You as his parent chose which school you send him. It is then up to the LEA and the school to ensure that he receives the support he needs to thrive within that environment.

Thanks. I had thought I read somewhere that the LEA could argue that a school wasnt suitable because of a childs ability or that it wasnt an efficient way to spend the LEA's funds. Its quite a while though since I read up on it and it wasnt an issue the last time we moved schools

You have a right to name any mainstream school, which the LA must agree with unless it would be unsuitable for the child, incompatible with the efficient education of other children or an inefficient use of resources. There is a 'bias towards mainstream' in law, which means that the LA cannot name a special school unless one of those conditions apply or if the parent requests a special school.

LAs are generally happy to name mainstream placements as they are cheaper than special schools, even with LSA support in mainstream. But you could still have to battle for the right amount of LSA support at secondary level as they will usually allocate the lowest number of hours that they can get away with.

It's quite rare to get FT LSA support at secondary, LAs often argue that it causes dependency and that the child won't want to be seen as different. Also, with the different structure of different subject teachers and moving around classrooms, many secondaries have assistants linked to subjects rather than to pupils, so that's something to think about and ask schools about.

Thats useful to know SCM - thanks.