Statement, when medications 'hides' the issue? help adhd

[feynman]

Hi folks, I'm asking this on behalf of a friend who has a little boy with some serious difficulties. He has adhd and is medicated. On medication his behaviour is poor but managable, off medication he's wild. So far he has no statement, school suggesting he wont get one as on meds he's 'ok'. Mum has report from private psych suggesting he is likely to need a placement at a special school.

I have a fair amount of experience with statementing, having fought the lea for my own son. My son has a statement and tbh none of his reports detail the 'issues' that this little boys does. I'm trying to help mum navigate the 'system' as it were, but know we will hit a brick wall as school will say he is not far enough behind to need a statement etc.

The only reason this is the case is because of the medication. Mum feels shes not helped him by medicating him, but he can't function without. Anyway I've just wondered if anyone else has had this battle, and if so, what was the outcome. Or if anyone else had any advice, that would be great.

Thanks

I know of two children with ADHD on meds and both of them have statements.

If I had a pound coin for every time schools made such crass comments re statementing (they do not make the decisions re this) I would be rather wealthy by now. I would ignore any naysayers and encourage your friend to apply for the statement to the LEA herself. She will know its been done then and she can appeal in the event the LEA refuse to assess. She does not need school's backing to apply for a statement.

School may also be trotting out the untruths that the LEA have told them to say. Blanket policy such as " he is not far enough behind to need a statement" is unlawful.

Encourage her to look at the websites of IPSEA and SOSSEN. Both are helpful when it comes to the statementing process.

When I worked as a TA in a secondary, a lot of statemented children with ADHD were on medication. The ones who weren't on medication were sa+. I can't think of a child who was statemented for ADHD who wasn't medicated...

It is interesting though. I certainly wouldn't advocate taking him off meds. They allow him to function. I had a similar discussion with the sn hv re dd2 and her dla . I couldn't believe she had been awarded high rate when she was doing sooooo well. But the sn hv sat me down and explained that she was only doing so well because of all the interventions. Same with your friend's Ds, really.

I have a 9yr old statemented with ADHD as part of his complex needs, and we've chosen not to medicate.

You DO NOT have to medicate as there are varying degrees of ADHD madwomanintheattic, you may not have come across any, but be assured there are many kids out there who don't need medicating.

I applied for statement myself and fought to get it as we live in one county and he's at school in another - we live on the border - the counties have varying degrees of need for statement and he fell through gap. Taken me 8months to get it, finally. He will now get the 1:1 he needs to progress in school.

He's already on sa+ and it was not enough.

Tell you're friend to start the statement process herself, she requests an assessment, they have to do one, although you need school co-operation it is not essential. Then the board sits and they decide on whether they will statement, I was refused at this point, and I appealed and won.

Its a long road but well worth it if the child is suffering in school & needs extra help.

Not saying you do have to medicate at all.

Just saying in the context of the statement/ medication thread, that there were lots of medicated kids with ADHD and statements. So that the op knew that medication for ADHD did not preclude getting a statement.

As that was the point of the thread.

Have been on lots of threads discussing meds for ADHD. but not in the context of whether it has affected getting a statement.

Ds1 is dx ADHD and is on his second different medication. I'm always up for discussing whether there are other, better non medicinal options, but that wasn't really relevant in a meds/ statement thread. Spent a good two hours discussing that very thing with the psych yesterday.

Thank-you all who have replied. That does make things somewhat clearer. I have already advised her to put in a request for a SA as soon as possible, not leave it school etc, but knowing our LEA I fully expected the arguement that he doesn't need one as he is 'ok' and 'not too far behind' as his meds are allowing him to function.
Thanks