Tribunals can flout the law re ABA

[GloriaTheHighlyFlavouredLady]

I've name changed but those who know me will know who I am probably immediately.

We have a tribunal approaching and the 'advice' I am getting is that we are unlikely to win ABA despite having shedloads of evidence of it being the only 'appropriate' approach and cheaper than the LA's alternative.

The reason for this, apparently is that the tribunal will not rule that a HT accepts ABA provision in her school against the HTs wishes as this will undermine the HT and cause conflict in the school which is against the best interests of the child.

Therefore, all a LA need do is insist/train/bribe all their HTs refuse ABA to erradicate it from their LA.

Further, despite my insistance that ABA is a support tool to enable a child who would otherwise be unable, to access the National Curriculum, in the way that a hearing aid would leading to a possible DDA issue, the response to that is that ABA is NOT an 'aid' but a 'method of instruction' which the HT only has authority over and gets to choose which she will allow in her school.

Does anyone have any thought or words (apart from swear ones)?

Have you spoken to FS about this?

No I haven't. Good idea.

The information in my OP was from IPSEA and SOSSEN.

I know you raised this before and I think your only option is to ask the tribunal to name a type of school (mainstream) which the LA must provide+ABA. The responsibility then falls to the LA to find you such a school. I know you want a particular school, but they are blocking that anyway. By naming a type of school the LA would have to say that they have told all HTs to block ABA and therefore they cannot find your DS a school place. It is unlikely to go down well with the tribunal that the LA is being so obstructive. You can always say if the LA refuses to allow ABA into any of its schools the only option would be the LA to fund a private school or out of area mainstream place on top of ABA. Once you (hopefully) have a tribunal decision naming mainstream+ABA and the LA is duty bound to fulfil that then you may find the opposition melts away. Not least because the LA won't want to pay for a taxi to bus your DS to a school not on your doorstep.

Thats my best shot at the moment.

You can always ask the HT at Tribunal (if there) how much ABA she has seen, what her objections are etc etc

You might be pleasantly surprised. A tribunal might be so pissed off by your LA that they make them find you a school with ABA.

You might also want your DS to start that particular school you want before tribunal so you can argue it would be disruptive and distressing for him to be moved.

With any luck you could be in the situation after tribunal where the LA are ordering the school to take your DS with ABA.

Different school it is then. Either a mainstream over county borders if the authority next door doesn't have such a blatently unfair policy. Or perhaps one of the private schools? Riverston in SE London is pretty progresive for example and has strong links with the London Children's centre. Or a place at Rainbow or one of the few aba schools. Or you could suggest aba as a home programme if current school is so unable to accomodate. LEA funded Home education usually horrifies lea bods so might shake the tree a little.

A trip to the MP showing how ABA is now THE default option in Norway and the lifetime costs to the tax payer if aba is not selected by Tribunal. Perhaps your MP might be able to challenge such expensive (in long term costs) bigotry.

If you really believe that aba is the only way your child learns & the lea is unable to accomodate it within a maintained school then part 4 needs to be an institution that flippin can, even if that is out of area and they have to pick up the transport tab. Yes it will cost more, but it gives the tribunal another option towards finding in your favour. I'd present both cheap lea cooperating and out of area options to tribunal if only cos it helps to make the lea look a bit daft.

You argument will be basically be your hom lea is unable to educate your child. Simple.

"We have a tribunal approaching and the 'advice' I am getting is that we are unlikely to win ABA despite having shedloads of evidence of it being the only 'appropriate' approach and cheaper than the LA's alternative."

This is very debatable, as some of the so called evidence can come from suspect or self interested sources, rather than independent research.

"ABA is NOT an 'aid' but a 'method of instruction' which the HT only has authority over and gets to choose which she will allow in her school."

This is the case ABA is not an aid it is only a teaching method, which a very small minority of the school population would benefit from. May be better for a special school than a mainstream school, where they can focus on a specific range of variations in learning and teaching, and provide more 1 to 1.

A hearing aid is useful tool for those who have a hearing impairment, but you would not expect all to have to use hearing aides. Hearing aides do not change the methods of teaching, more enabling to use the existing teaching methods.

Hearing aides are prescribed for a specific clinical disability, to help overcome a hearing impairment, so as to nullify the hearing impairment. This does not apply to ABA, as it does not nullify the underlying disability to help the understanding of the content National Curriculum. ABA is not that specific.

So may be you could identify the specific underlying cognitive information processing disabilities, and request more specific aids as per each of the identified cognitive disabilities may be more appropriate to meet your DSs needs. Which can be more complicated but in the long term more life long appropriate.

Thanks Agnes and Bochead.

I think one of the problems I face is that all the schools within walking distance I would be happy with. Not as happy as the school I've chosen as I have chosen it for the kids rather than the teachers, but nonetheless happy enough.

But none of them have spaces now that the year has started, except for the one that is named in ds' statement.

In allowing the LA to name a school, they will surely find the least suitable one furthest away (around 3 miles I understand is acceptable) and will ds (almost 5), dd (almost 4) and a baby in June coupled with my inability to drive, that option will be impossible for me to achieve.

Now this isn't a problem unique to me and others have to suck it up, but as a parent of a child with a disability it is just an additional strain, not to mention ds will not be able to socially interact in the local community with his peers that attend that school should ever the opportunity arise.

I'm in no way suggesting you allow the lea to name a school! (Gawd knows mine would have chosen the least suitable outta sheer spite!)

More that you scout out schools over the 3 mile transport criteria (so transport becomes their issue) in a different lea that IS sympathetic to aba and name that as an alternative to the current non-co-operative option. In your shoes I'd have 3 choices to present to tribunal

1. Your local Lea maintained school that can't accomodate aba but is your current 1st choice.
2. Lea next door state school that's aba sympatheic and just conveniently happens to be located so that you qualify for transport . Leas hate sending funds over borders.
3. Private institution that has also agreed that they are aba sympathetic.

Get a written expression of intent to accomodate aba from options 2 & 3 & all of a sudden you have taken the wind out of their sails that "mainstream" can't accomodate aba. I suppose the aim is to prove to the tribunal they bloody can accomodate aba but just don't want to iyswim. An email from the HT will do. I used this technique to keep my lad outta the PRU earlier this year.

Now for my mini rant in sympathy of your cause:-

Aba is not the pedagogy of an alien lifeform ffs, its merely a more structured, targetted method of teaching. In theory noone should object to structured teaching. ffs my ex sen teacher Mum who is 75 "gets it" far more easily than more her modern caring carrots counterparts. Why is the UK dragging it's feet so much over the one technique with the largest evidence base while continuing to employ at great taxpayer xpense an army of utterly useless caring carrots?

Local community socialisation is a battle for another day - if needed he can always join scouts or summat & you'll meet other families via his siblings in time.

bochead Thank you for your time with this.

Our case should be simple, our requests are simple and undemanding, not to mention cheap and yet our case is so complicated.

And please don't feel the need to rant (unless you want to).

Incidently there IS an independent school fairly near us that doesn't do ABA but according to expensive EP that we had to cancel, may as well be as their strategies are pretty much that but due to the contention of it they simply deny that is what they do .

I think Agnes pointed me to it actually some while ago. It's a mainstream school for children that don't do mainstream whatever that means.

God knows if they have any spaces though but my job for Monday will be to try to find out. There is always I suppose Home ABA until a space becomes available?

And we are close-ish to a border with (I think) a slightly 'better' LA so I can scout around there too.

Thanks so much.

Not too sure of my ground on this but just an idea - if aba is the only way your child learns, and no school can provide this in your lea, does that mean that your chld's right to education won't be met by your la? won't it also breach the equality act and maybe the human rights act?

Also, I think someone on the board went to tribunal this year and got both aba and private school (not ss) for her child. If I remember correctly it was to do with sensory problems in ms classes.

Good luck.

Tbh ABA (at least what most uninitiatec people recognise as ABA) isn't the only was ds learns now, but he sure as he'll doesn't learn the LA way. And I have no idea what to call provision which calls for LSAs to be highly trained in pedagogy, linguistics, analysis and motivation except for OUR eclectic approach rather than theirs.

IPSEA also say that ours being cheaper makes it look like the LA package is generous and better .

I have now conversed with a few other ABA people in other counties who have had similar problem and they all have LAs that use the same solicitor.

I cannot understand why a tribunal would let a headteacher get away with implementing A Blanket policy though, but I have been to tribunal before and have no faith in them.

IPSEA suggest asking for independent plus ABA. FfS they might be right but that is just ridiculous.

Ah hun have you not learnt yet NOTHING is riduclous in the land of the caring carrot bar plain ol' common sense?

Go with the IPSEA rec as they more than any of us have the experience at the coal face.

It would be useful to collect evidence and testimonies from schools around the UK where ABA is used with success.

The ABA most of you refer to here is what is known as EIBI (early intensive behavioural intervention) which is but one aspect of learning based on the principles of applied behaviour analysis.

There are many others-Precision Teaching, Direct Instruction, Active Support, PECS. Headsprout reading interventions, to name just a few.

ABA is the science of learning.
It uses scientific principles to ensure people learn faster nad more effectively and use of effective reinforcers in an effective manner is key to that, as is meticulous data colelction and analysis.

Star I have nothing useful to add except that you should be very careful to keep your 'target' tight WRT evidence.

Remember, you are not trying to show that ABA/'your eclectic approach' is the 'BEST' education for your DS. Nor are you trying to show that your DS would exceed normal rates of progress with YOUR method, as opposed to normal/below average rates with THEIR method. After all, there are many, many children who would achieve more if they were in smaller classes, or had more specialised teaching, or had teaching that focussed on what motivated them.

What you need to 'prove' is that your model Statement of SEN is the only way that your DS can make adequate progress, to the exclusion of their proposal.

In effect, this has to be a quite dispassionate 'transactional analysis'. It isn't about your DS. It is about the child whose education is under scrutiny. Yes, your DS deserves the most appropriate education, but they don't have that criteria, it only has to be 'suitable'.

I'd also add that pushing a specific way of working onto an unwilling school is never going to work.

However good something is, peopel will only accept it if they understand it and feel comfortable with it and not bullied into it.

Just to add, in terms of spaces, isn't there argument that a school can be compelled to accept a child with a statement if the LA agree it is the most appropriate?

However, I think the problem you are going to have is that no school in that county will agree with ABA if the LA is so adamantly opposed and the head's view will carry a great deal of weight. It will take a very brave head to stand up against her/his employers.

I also agree with Moondog that pushing a way of working on an unwilling school will just not work. Even if it is ordered, they will always be fighting you and will undermine you.

The Tribunal won't see this as supporting a ''blanket policy" but as siding with the professional 'on the ground' whose only interest is supporting the needs of the child. Whereas, us demanding parents all want 'the best' irrespective of what the 'experts' say.

Thanks Lougle Our case is simple. You're right I have to keep it from being pulled apart and waste time on irrelevant arguments.

Moondog I can't be sure whether the Headteacher is against ABA or that she has been told to be. She has certainly been told not to engaged in any conversation about it with the mad deluded brainwashed parent who believes biased research and has been sold a dream of an autism cure by American cowboys.

The situation would be identical whichever school we were going for because of the LA's stance and their (I believe) circulars to HTs telling them not to accept any hint of ABA-like stuff and to notify them immediately if a parents requests such.

I agree that something won't work well if there is what amounts to a 'hostile takeover' but it wasn't working before so I can only hope that it will work a bit better even if not ideal.

The LA's solicitor has peppered the LA's opposition with emotive language against ABA. It is not an education but a 'behaviour modification system' apparently.

How close are you to the county border?

All education is behaviour modification.
All of life is behaviour modification!
Don't tell them that, it will blow their minds.

I'd not be wasting energy on fighting people who will be against you npo matter what you do.
A more effective (but not necessarily feasible) scenario is setting up your party, so to speak elsewhere, then having so much fun and so much success that people worry about missing out on the action and succcess and then come tapping on the windows asking to be let in.

That is exactly how and why things have worked so well for us.
Pools of success, which attract interest and attention and gradually they all join up into a big ole' lake of ABA based general fabness.

No. We're pretty trapped. Our options aren't completely closed though.

There is a new HT of a local school that was failing with a reputation for being determined and no-nonsense. She is friendly with the HT of the independent nursey ds attends. One of our tutors has worked there before and although the HT doesn't know her the remaining staff thing well of her (all the lazy ones left in a huff).

This wasn't an option before due to staff/child ratios but now that full-time support is on the cards this can be overcome. I have no idea if the HT would be receptive but I have nothing to lose. The people 'in the know' think it is likely to be an outstanding school shortly and parents are already on board.

Another option is the independent special school that is for mainstream children that would survive but not thrive. I'd have to give up the ABA but they are the closest thing to it that could be a feasible alternative.

AT, I'm not really sure how close to the boder we are tbh but I think it is reasonably close.

Moondog, we have success. Ds is being educated in an independent nursery with his ABA tutors. It is a year below his academic year but due to oversubscribed schools there are actually a no. Of children in his year group that attend. His progress has been astounding, but now we have 'announced' it to the LA and school and invited all to vist we have had no interest and a refusal to see it.

Just wondered if a school out of county would be more likely to have an honest attitude to these matters.

Possibly as they aren't in conflict with their own employers and would probably insist on more support than less, with better qualified staff.