Lost it with EWO lady today

[jenk1]

she came round to see me and DH re ds not being in school.

"You canx psychiatrist assessment of DS today NOT A GOOD MOVE"

(the psych whp was trying to overturn mine and ds dx)

I can appreciate that ds has anxiety problems but he needs to be back in school and he will have to cope.

We said NO.
doctors letter is not evidence enough as does not say how long ds should be off school-how long is a piece of string?

Head Teacher says DS goes back in full time or face the consequences.

They are now mentioning words like "legal action" "court dates" etc.

Parent Partnership said Heads attitude is disgusting and were phoning her this afternoon and if they got nowhere the LEA.

PP says there is a school that is mainstream with an Autism unit attached that caters for HFA/AS and DS can qualify to go there when he starts the assessment.

I have emailed Ds Consultant Psychologist as i feel desperate and dont know what to do

We CANNOT/WILL NOT send DS into a school that refuses despite a report from Psychology to accecpt that he is AS/ASD but we feel that they and EWO have us over a barrel.

Specialist in diagnosing AS/ASD is off sick atm so thats what we are waiting for.

gosh jenk, thats awful. i have no experience of special needs, but i know that you dont have to send your child to school at all, as long as they are doing (i think) 2 hours a day of education you have every right to home tutor them. 'education' doesnt mean sitting at a desk necessarily. instead of worrying about stupid people threatening you could you contact your lea and ask about home tuition? i know thats not the point but might take a bit of pressure off.

EWO said that DS possibly could qualify dor a tutor to come and teach him

i just thought if you said you were tutoring him you wouldnt have to worry so much when the head starts talking about consequences because there wouldnt be any (except maybe you being less stressed out!).

im afraid i dont know a huge amount about home education, but i did take ds1 out of school for half days a while back. i luckily have a great head teacher who was v supportive and backed me all the way (yours sounds like she should be sacked, what a dreadful attitude). if you post asking about home ed im sure you would get someone who knew more. all you have to show is that you are doing something 'educational' for a couple of hours a day. i dont think there is anything specific about what that means - you could do whatever the two of you fancy, a trip to see the ducks can be educational if you make it so.

We have tried half days and ds is still stressed and his anxiety hasnt got any better, we think he is being teased in class and his teacher turns a blind eye as he has told us that when he tells her she says "stop telling tales".

If we were to Home Ed him ourselves then he wont get a statement as he has to stay on the school register.

By him having a tutor the LEA is responsible for providing him with education and we can apply for a statement.

The argument is that Psychology say he is AS/ASD and Psychiatry say no and that he doesnt suffer from anxiety and that he should be in school

We have complained about the psychiatrist who has seen ds as he brushed aside what we were saying about ds and wouldnt accept what Clinical psychology were saying.

Unfortunately we are caught up in the middle of the 2 departments disagreeing and it is DS who is suffering.

Have you thought about the local paper, they love these sort of stories.

Sorry best I can do at this time of night.

Noi hadnt thought of that,Umm something to think about

bump-sorry to mither guys but i cant stop crying today.

Why are we getting so much hassle when all we are trying to do is look after the health of our son?

How can we as parents be prosecuted for doing this?

We have medical letters from Ds GP saying that he suffers from anxiety and these symptoms mean that he cannot come into school but they say this is not enough evidence.

Can anyone advise?

Jenk.
Im sorry I havent emailed you yet....I promise I will send you all the info I have tomorrow and please try not to worry...I know its easy for me to type "dont worry" when you have a thousand and one "what if's" running through your head....but believe me when I say there is nothing the LEA can do against you...they are trying to bully you into submission.
Take it from one who was in your exact position not so long ago....keep strong and this will all work out fine.