I am no longer ever speechless in meetings with professionals but....

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I just met a HT who used to be an ABA tutor!!!!!

I literally had nothing to say!

No. That one rejected him in the end. Too much trouble having him with la involvement, tribunals etc.

This one wasn't overjoyed at the prospect either as our LA truly are hell but it was weird to not have to explain every detail to a face of suspicion and confusion.

star - you need to reside in a better (how could it be worse?) LA. Otherwise the la "label of star = trouble" is gonna haunt your famil like a bad smell forever more. Noone can live like that forever.

ABa Trained HT - a dream come true but your head musta been spinning and whirring "do not compute, do not compute" to see it in the flesh.

I know boch, but the trouble is that with a new LA we'd have to have a year of failure again. At least with this one we can prove that they can't meet his needs because they have had an opportunity to try and failed.

And yes, it was a pretty flat meeting as I was basically stopped before I got going. It's like when you're in a fight and then get on home territory you suddenly collapse. Not that I don't still need to work hard if we want to go the distance. Her ABA training appears to be a bit old school and she doesn't appear to understand how it can be incorporated into mainstream, but to have someone who understands the parents perspective in tribunal terms was a bit

Hang on a minute - the advice I've been given is that a new LEA have to honour the provision in the "old lea" statement for at least 6 months before they can review it (ie hack it away to nothing again!). It's actually one of the reasons I dug my own heels in and fought so hard last year.

My advice cam from Ipsea and the solicitor in December so I'm assuming is valid for 12 months. I know damn well that at review time in 12 months my lea will try and hack back anyway so figure I may as well fight the "don't touch my statement, it's precious!" battle with a new lea, where at least there won't be any personal animosity towards myself to overcome.

Your current lea may do their best to cut back/rewrite at annual review time out of sheer spite. I don't think you do have that guarantee of not having to endure a year of failure again while you wait for Tribunal if you stay where you are.

6 months in a new lea would give you time to prove your approach works for your child and then given the fact you DO have prvious failure to refer to, it gives you a fighting chance at continuance. Right now it just seems noone is willing to stick their neck out and give your family a fair crack at the whip.

boch We haven't got our approach written into the statement though. We've got the LA failing one written. We lost our tribunal. We have proved that losing our tribunal has been detrimental to ds.

If we moved to another LA, they'd have to honour the failing statement, not the one we want.

Star which school is that? Pleased you found someone that knows what works best!