can a mainstream school say no to admitting your sen child as

[nailak]

they say they have noone trained to give him his medication?

even if the mum says she will come in and give the child the medication every day?

[madwomanintheattic]

if they can meet the needs in every other way, usually a care plan is drawn up and a member of staff (or two, pref) are trained to give the meds.

usually the school nurse is involved with drawing up of care plan.

but usually kids with specifically health issues wouldn't be referred to as 'sen' unless the health aspect has other effects of ability to access the curriculum - so it may be the 'other' aspects that they can't meet needs?

health bits are a pita and can take some working out, but are usually resolveable.

do you want the child to go somewhere he/ she isn't wanted though? it's v tricky...

really getting the mum to go in should only be an interim measure until staff have been trained. this is not something that can be kept up for 11 years of schooling.

[nailak]

the child has hearing difficulties, he has a syndrome where his airway and ears didnt form properly, but he can hear with hearing band and talk, the medicine is given through chest button, to prepare him for the surgery to reconstruct ear, and sometimes he needs oxygen.

when the mother approached school when she moved to area child was innursery and they said the cant help him and he is better of in special school, the mother doesnt know the system well. she said it was too far so they arranged transport, where in nursery he was leaving at 7.30 am and coming home around 4.30pm. he is now in reception and she would prefer him to be in mainstream schooling. she feels the special school relies too much on teaching him to sign when they should be encouraging him to speak, as he has no problems speaking at home, just all her children seem to be quiet when outside of the home. she went back to the local school before reception and they said no because of medication issues.

i would have thought there would be obligation on them to get the training? but they seem to be just putting her off and dismissing her.

[madwomanintheattic]

it can be tough to get this type of thing sorted - are they saying he requires a special school because of the oxygen etc as well?

she needs to go to the lea and the school nurse as well, often just trying to liaise with a school doesn't work. what does the child's paediatrician think? often they can be reasonably influential and write to the lea emphasising the needs of the child.

interesting re surgery etc - if this is a short term issue (not sure when the surgery is planned for) then it might be better to remain in curretn setting until after that? does she have a specialist teacher advisor from the lea? (there should be an advisor specifically for children with hearing impairments) it may be that she has not accessed them because of the special school link, but it would be interesting for them to assess and advise on setting as well.

there are lots of people she can discuss this with - sometimes opening it up wider can help to solve ongoing problems.

[BakeliteBelle]

Can she chose any mainstream school if it's a health need rather than an SEN? Other schools might be more willing to try to accommodate him. He doesn't sound like he's receiving the right education at special school

[nailak]

madwoman it is because he needs medicine throuh the stomach button,

she hasnt spoke to the nurse and doesnt even know who the nurse is, neither do i and my dd attends the school.

the paediatrician is at great ormand street.

i dont think the surgery is planned for at least another year, not sure about specifics but he needs to gain weight and strengthen immune system or something.

i dont think she knows about lea advisor or how to find them?

[madwomanintheattic]

just call the lea and ask who the sta for hearing impaired pupils is. (or there might be a list on tinternet - there will be one for VI, one for PD etc etc)

school nurse is the same - no-one ever knows which nurse is allocated to their school, but if you call the school and ask, they should be able to tell you who it is (or the lea will know, or be able to point you in the right direction). some are great, and some are worse than useless, but worth a try.

it doesn't matter where the paed is, tbh. if they are the specialist dealing with that particular child developmentally as well as for a particular condition (they may also have a local developmental paed) they can write to the lea concerned advising on appropriate settings - for example, in cases where statutory assessment was taking place, this would happen routinely. does the child have an existing statement? (there would have been some initial discussion as to settings prior to being offered a special school place)

it may also be worth getting advice from charities such as NDCS in support of working towards speech rather than continuing to emphasise sign.

it's not really my area tbh, but that's where i'd be going. (dd2 has a physical disability and doesn't require meds - we had a small issue wrt swallowing/ choking, but managed to get all supervising staff trained and she has always been mainstream in school - joint placement with special school for nursery)

[madwomanintheattic]

i would also be discussing with the area inco at the lea - essentially the next rung above the school senco on the sn ladder. usually good people to bounce ideas of and ask opinions from...

[TheNinjaGooseIsOnAMission]

has she been in contact with her local parent partnership, details can be found here if you need them? They should be able to give her the contact details of any local services she would need to speak to. Is he statemented? If he is, the contact details for the sen department and the case worker should be on that paperwork, your friend would need to speak to them to get the statement changed to name a different school and any reassessment that may be needed if that is the case.

[madwomanintheattic]

for softer support, is this any use?

[nailak]

thank you everyone for all your help. i will tell her. i know she had no idea about any of this and noone told her. health visitor just tells her stuff like she is entitled to free toys!!

[madwomanintheattic]

the thing is, it's vanishingly rare for anyone to actually tell you anything - you're kind of expected to go off and find out yourself. it shouldn't be that way, but it so often is.

it's why kids with sn often fall through the net - the parents don't know (or sometimes don't care) which way to go to get help or support, or even information. so the kids with pushy parents who are prepared to make a noise and a zillion phone calls do eventually end up with the right provision, and those with parents who are unable (for whatever reason) to advocate for their child, often are left behind.

it's also the case that things are often done slightly differently in each lea - so you have to start somewhere and follow the leads to get to the person who can help! (i recently completed a full circle of telephone calls over the course of a week, tracking down who was responsible for school ot in our new area - ending up exactly back where i started. but i'm going to leave it a week and then have another go, eventually i'll find tthe right link!)

get her to join the sn board. tons of info on here! hope she gets to speak to the right people!