Applying for SA for the 2nd time advice needed please

[claw4]

Ds currently has a NIL, after previous SA request.

Do i have to apply for SA as if it were the first time or am i asking them to reassess?

Leonie, its frustrating i have all the information to hand, ds could have had a statement last time round. Its knowing what to do with it, how to word it and providing what they want. I dont think i did this as well as i could have last time. I made plenty of mistakes, not necesarily my fault as such, but mistakes all the same.

I believed school when they said they would support my application, i wasnt prepared for them to 'switch sides' at the last moment. I was expecting to have them as witnesses for me, so hadnt chased up evualated IEPs or asked for a copy of school file. I didnt take any experts with me either.

Unfortunately, tribunal decided it was up to me to provide evidence of lack of progress and not for school to provide evidence of progress.

Still you live and learn and maybe become a bit cyncial in the process too

Yes I am not sure whether the P scale for social will be relevant for your DS or not - DS has masses of social gaps but your DS is better at blending in. I suppose I am thinking if you can point to concrete evidence of delay e.g. even at below NC level then you can use that as the basis of inadequate progress

I only got showed PIVATS this week and am waiting for the SENCO to copy them for me but they look really useful, I guess they should have some measure of progress re social skills etc

Even with a statement its never ending. We have to show enough progress but not too much progress so the LA says he does not need the help. I mean no-one in their right mind would look at DS and think he did not need every bit of help he is getting, but when it comes to ABA few people seem to have a right mind!

Have EP monitoring visit next week and getting anxious myself. He should be blown away by how DS is doing in mainstream, but as we have 6 times as many monitoring visits as any other statemented child the LA are not allocating 5-6 days of EP time a year without an underhand agenda. Its embarrassing when I know kids are sat on a waiting list desperate for EP time and we are drowning in completely unnecessary EP monitoring visits. DS has 4 ABA consults a year as well so he must be the only child in England getting 10 state funded psychologist visits a year for a programme which everyone agrees is working well. The whole system stinks.

The school had to submit their EYFS / NC assessments to the LA recently for moderation and apparently got an email fired back about DS results asking if he had a statement (and implying if not why not) - yet this is the same LA, different dept which swore blind 3 years ago DS needs were so mild and he was so HF he would not even merit a statutory assessment.

I have covered one of area of need so far in my ramblings!

I am now up to cognitive and learning, i plan to focus on functional ability, but have a question.

When EP tested ds 2 and half years ago, his scores in verbal, non verbal etc were very high. General cognitive score IQ of 127, something like top 5% of population.

When different EP tested a year ago, his centile were down quite significantly for example 95th to 66th and full scale comp or IQ not appropriate to compute due to the amount of scatter between subtests (although she did test verbal and non verbal, she also tested for things, that previous EP didnt)

Also his word reading age and spelling age, has been up and down on 3 diferent EP assessments. He was previosly advance by about 2 years, now down to a month in advance for reading and 3 months behind for spelling.

All of his scores were still 'average' though, is it worth pointing this out as he should be maintaining his level of progress? Or will i not do myself any favours and come across as 'i want my kid to be top of the class'?

Agnes, i have asked how they measure social skills and was told 'not everything is measurable, they just see progress in ds'

I asked did they observe him then, 'noooo we just see it'

I also asked the same of his sensory needs and was told the same thing!

Same for his anxiety too!

I asked for programmes, outcomes, monitoring etc. Seems all the difficulties ds's has are 'not measurable' and parent partnership agreed with this, surprise!

Weird the way it works, when its costing them money, they cant get enough of monitoring progress!

Good luck for next week.

From what you say it would appear that the school have not carried out the recommendations of the NIL. The problem is that this provides a loophole for the LEA to wriggle through - they could argue that the recommendations in the NIL are adequate but that the school is responsible for carrying them out. In other words your beef is with the school and not the LEA and that they need to see that the recommendations have been carried out before they can comment on their adequacy. You need to prove that DS's needs are not being met despite the maximum permitted well-founded interventions and support. I have encountered stalling in this way.