LEA negotiation for ABA part funding in Cardiff- HELP!!

[Ronifromwales]

Hi all

I know some of you have had experience in dealing with Cardiff LEA with regards to ABA therapy and would please like some advice. My son is attending an SRB in a local school and he's 5 in May. We have started running a part time ABA programme at home and he leaves school at 2pm for this.

We have been through training and can see that it is starting to work wonders and would like to negotiate part funding with the LEA and to change his statement to reflect this. He currently attends an SRB with 20 kids all in one room ranging from 4-10 years. The ratio is 1 staff to 4 kids and gets 6-7 hours per week in 1 to 1.

Seeing the benefits of intensive 1 to 1 therapy, we don't feel his programme is adequate. He has got an IEP that we have done ourselves via the aba consultants and it is a lot more thorough than what we feel school has got. It includes SALT and OT.

He started there in Sept and to date we haven't seen his IPP yet. First parents meeting was in Nov- 8 weeks after he had started and they had nothing to say bec they said they didn't know him well, just that he was settling well.

if you know any good laywers that have dealt with Cardiff LEA before about ABA related funding or if you've got any advice with regards to what I can say to his LEA case worker at this point please, please contact me privately.

Have a nice day all
xxxx

in addition to the above, he was attacked twice in school in the last three weeks. he's the youngest and most vulnerable child, no agression just a little clever angel who needs to be taught the right way and he will start progressing. the first occasion was the week before last when an older student grabbed his head and needed a staff member to release him. He did nothing just cried like a prey, I was there and witness it, the second one was on Tue when a student who is also older threw a pair of scissors and according to the school 'he happened to be on the way'. It could have blinded him, I am so worried. School has said that both students are misplaced and will be reallocated.

My ds has got mild autism and he is definitely not learning from correct role models... I don't know what else to do :(

Don't know anything about Cardiff but I think you would need to start to make a case that their provision is unsuitable for your ds. You would also need to look at what the alternative forms of schooling are. In order to get them to consider it you would need to prove that what they are offering is unsuitable and not adequate. We did get funding for part time ABA but that was when we were doing it at home and dd was still at nursery. When she was due to start school we were then able to phase school in gradually as we scaled back ABA. This was a mainstream school though. Your difficulty will be proving that it is ABA and not school which is the cause of your ds' progress as he is currently in both settings. Start keeping records of everything and also look for any assessment data such as p scale levels so you can show lack of progress at school.

You need to get both those incidents formally logged by school who should have written Serios Incident Reports and sent them to the LA.

This is important because you may need this kind of evidence at a later date.

'serios' - doh! ? I can actually spell 'serious'

Thanks both, I've invited his aba consultant, lea rep, area counsellor and will be fighting for his rights. His ipp (individual play plan) is only one page and with spaces. Total joke compared with his large aba folder. :( were seeking a diagnosis now. His paed isalso too. I hadn't seen his ipp until today, he staryed in sept. Have not seen his salt from school and don't know anything re any OT from school side. School was vile to me last year because I asked questions. I left it this year and this is where we're at. If they were doing their job we wouldn't have looked for help outside :( x

You asked for the name of a good lawyer. I've PM'd you.

Sorry meant to say paed is a joke too

I used Levenes when we went for ABA (this was for an ABA school place). I went with them as they had worked with our consultant before, and we chose our EP based on what the consultant and the lawyers recommended (figured we shoudl have a good 'team' together)

it worked for us, and LA settled before tribunal, and dd1 has been in ABA school for 2 years now.