What qualifies as SEn or disability? Mental Health problems?

[nelliegooner]

My DD is 15 and we have never had any diagnosis of SEN. However, her life is being governed by her anxiety and depression (bought on..so we thought by peristant bullying at school for year 4 to 8) howver our psychologist has said DD has 'school phobia' AKA @School refusal'. She hasn't been to school for 7 months. She has ome input from the local ECOS (Education for Children Out of School) as all the PRU's in our county have been shut down! (Well we do have a number of grammar schools that they need to fund!!! sorry...bit of a sore point) any way...the psycologist recommended that DD look for a place on a vocational course at a local college. We havw done this and DD was quite excited about starting na course in Hair & Beauty. However thae school have said that they cannot support this. This then leave our faughet with 5 hours online lessons a week and 1 hour with a TA. No social interaction at all and pretty poor outlook for both education and the rest of her life.
I personally think that DD has PDA (pathological demand avoidance syndrome) which is on the autistic spectrum.
The thing that I am intersted in is:
are mental health disabilities thta affect a childs ability to interact socially considered disabling enough to warrant tailored education to her needs.
Would a diagnosis of PDA assist us in seeking the college course for our daughter wu=ith more success. To be honest i feel that the school think our daughteer ii manupulative and that i am a crap mother! Which I'm not!!!
Any ideas??? Thanks

have you seen the connexions worker about college placement?....they can get this funded but need to act quickly, pm me if you want, your dd sounds just like mine was.

Is connexions separate from school?

Ah I've just googled it! Would they be able to provide funding? Would I need a SEN assessment?

yes....think they changed the name not sure what they are called now...but can still be found on the internet under connexions
hth

they can apply for funding and also arrange everything for the course

I am trying to get a diagnosis of PDA (well either that or confirmation that it isn't PDA) but the school phobia aqnd anxiety is disabling enough. Basically my daughter stays in bed all day, does not get washed or dressed, only eats cake, doesn't go out or mix with other people. She thinks all the teachers hate her and most (if not all) the kids hate her too. She is relucatant to go out were we live as she might see people that don't like her. BUT she would be keen to go to a college in the next town as she puts it 'no one would know me'. Now the reality may be that she couldn't handle it so the college have suggested a trial. But the school won't even consider that, so if there is another way in it's got to be worth trying. I will call the local 'connexions' contact in the morning! Thanks

thread here about school refusal which may be helpful

Thanks robotcornysilk....what a great link..just what i was after! think I might actually get some sleep tonight..now i know aht to do...connexions here i come! (and a glass of red wine too!)

Left a message for the local connexions contact. Also appointment arranged for psychological assessment...hopefully things will start moving forward!!

good news

that should have been a ...a is for when you kick ass with school

Good news that you have the connexions appt and psychological assesment set up. I'm really gobsmacked that the school are being so obstructive about move to college. They and the LA should be biting your hand off to take up this opportunity to resolve the problem. It is so difficult to build up a young person's confidence enough to get them back into any kind of school setting when they have been school refusing for any length of time. I think it is fantastic that your dd is sounding so positive and sensible about starting again in a new setting. Your dd has a right to a full-time education. The fact that the LA have agreed to home tuition because of her school phobia means that they accept the responsibility to provide her with a suitable education - even though the 1 hour face to face tuition plus five hours online is a piss poor effort at providing it. Hope there will be some more info and ammunition for your complaint in the school refusal thread too.

Thanks for the support pinkorkid and robotcornysilk! Without the info last night I would have mad eno progress today. I don't know what i expected from schools, but support was one of them...How wrong I was. We've had no support from day 1. If no one tels you about what help is avaialble you never know do you.
Hopefully I can use lots of when I kick the schools arse! as robotcornysilk puts it!!