ADHD Statement Criteria

[MadameSin]

DS aged 8 and in year 4 (dx of mild ADHD and dyslexia) has not made any sub-level progress in literacy and numeracy since starting at his junior school 2 years ago. He has gone up 1 sub-level in his reading. Apparently he does not 'fit the criteria' to be statemented as he is not 'bad enough'. However, government dot org website states that if your child does not make progress under school action or school action+, which is what ds is on, the school can apply for a statment. Obviously school are not keen to apply ... why would they not want help/money for him?? I just don't get it He has an IEP and gets 4 hours a week under SA+ ... and apparently lots more. So if his getting all this help, why no progress? Oh, and by the way ... they think he's bad enough to medicate, but not statement WTF!!

Ooops, sorry posted twice in excitement!

It's illegal for any LA to have blanket policies (i.e. criteria) for determing whether or not to assess for the possible need for a Statement.

So invite them to put these criteria in writing - they won't.

why would they not want help/money for him?? I just don't get it

Because schools don't automatically get funding for every child with SENs. What they do get is some money delegated to them from LAs to support SENs.
Schools have to decide how to spend that very limited amount of money. If school doesn't have the funding available to provide the necesary support they should apply for an assessment for a Statement. But assuming the Statement is granted, school would almost certainly be expected bt the LA to chip in some of their delegated budget to pay for the support required by the Statement.
So Statements take away school's flexibility to spend in the ways they want to. Statements also annoy the school's paymaster - the LA, as a successful application for a Statement will cost the LA additional money. And schools don't want to be thought of badly by their funding authorities, so schools are happy to ignore the child's needs and not apply for a Statement.

So, if you think he's not making progress and needs help that the school cannot deliver or don't have the funds to deliver then you need to apply for a Statement yourself directly to the LA. The school would probably be happy for him to jog on forever on SA+ getting further behind until he's no longet their problem - i.e. when he moves to secondary school.

Harsh but true.

Apply yourself - they'll fob you off till kingdom come if you let em, for all the reasons Wet mentioned. The IPSEA website has model letters to help.

Only the kids whose parents are prepared to fight HARD for them get anywhere near the support they actually need. It's very wrong, but it is the way it is.

Medication is something to be discussed & decided upon, between yourself and the doctors. It's something prescribed to aid neurological functioning in the child, not to make the school's life easier. They need to concentrate on why they are failing to do their own job, before nosing into others. You are right to think WTF????

My DD is 5 has ADHD and dyspraxia we were told by EP and everyone else that she doesn't need a statement not severe enough, children with ADHD don't get statements etc etc. we applied ourselves and have a statement and full-time 1-1 classroom assistant. So agree do not let them fob you off.

DS2 is 5yo with ADHD (among other things) and has a statement.

Apply yourself. I agree .. they're fobbing you off.

Oh dear ... I feared this was happening. Too many smiles when they spoke to me at his parents evening. They look at me like I'm mad or something when I talk about a statement. It must be their strategy. Bloody disgrace how we have to fight for it - just spent the last 5 months fighting the NHS on behalf of my dad who sadly passed away this month .. it's all b*ocks! Can any of you tell me on what grounds your children were successfully granted a statement ie: behaviour, behind academically etc. The keep showing me this piece of paper which is the criteria for statementing ... it says he'd need to be at a level 1b at the end of year 4 to qualify and he's at a 2b,2a,3c. But, at the same time banging on about how he's not reaching his targets blah blah blah

Your LA's own criteria doesn't have a leg to stand on legally at a Tribunal they will be interested in the impact his difficulties have on his ability to learn and make adequate progress.

Whatever you do - hang on tight to that piece of paper that shows your LA is running an illegal policy. It'll help you a lot if you ever end up at Tribunal.

When applying for an assessment ask youself:

what are his problems?

what help does he did to overcome them?

"The keep showing me this piece of paper which is the criteria for statementing ... it says he'd need to be at a level 1b at the end of year 4 to qualify"

Balls to that, its all lies designed to put parents off from applying for statements. Do not be fooled by weasel words.

Keep that evidence safe for any future Tribunal hearing. They would be interested. IPSEA www.ipsea.org.uk now would be.

LEAs know the law and such blanket policies are unlawful.

Make the statement application yourself and ignore any naysayers.

Just got a proposed statement or my dd dx ASD with complex presentation as has traits of ADHD amongst other issues. She is academically above average. It is all for behaviour/emotional/independence. It states that any school have to give her access to be able to acheive a min of 5 GCSE's grades a to c (she's just finished year 8). The statement is a low level one (less common) with full support.

It states that any school have to give her access to be able to acheive...

That's ridicoulously vague and woolly. Most schools would give any of their pupils access to achieve a min of 5 GCSEs ... Whether they actually achieve them would depend on many things. In your case what specific support will they provide to enable to to actually attain these quals?

DS2 academically ahead of his peers (on g&t for maths) so they're talking out their backsides when they say the child has to be behind....

We were told that ds couldn't get a statement because his levels were above average and his difficulties had clearly not affected his learning and we didn't have a dx at the time so that didn't help. I wrote straight back stating that it was all about need not just academic results and how much higher his levels would have been with the right support. I also gave them a long list of difficulties and rebuffed every point they had made to avoid assessing.They soon changed their mind and we got a 22 hour statement. Don't be fobbed off - they try it on in the hope some parents give up and drop by the wayside.

Oh, and I also quoted various sections of the Sencop at them so they knew they were dealing with someone who wasn't going to be a pushover.

Thanks for the concern,WetAugust, but fortunately DD's statement is more specific than what I have posted. It does sound wooly from what I've posted. It is over 10 pages long and does state about teachers, group sizes, low arousal environment, familiar staff etc etc. The bit about the academics is important in our case as she hasn't been directly taught by a teacher since October so if she stays in the same school (which she won't be if I've got anything to do with it) they will have to hire a teacher to teach her (lea already discussed this). She needs special school but is too academic for all of them except 1 here which prob isn't the right peer group and is full. Without the academic part the other schools could have said they'd meet her needs when really they couldn't. The lea said at a meeting with us that if she wasn't academically so capable it would be easy to sort provision out as they would just name a special school!!!!!! So they know they don't have the right provision and this is what's causing my sleepless nights now!!

Good luck OP, it can be done and as prev poster says it does state about none a academic needs in the SENCOP. My dd only went on to school action plus in March last year and diagnosed in Feb this year. Primary claim she never had any probs!!