*DOES IT LOOK BAD FOR THE SCHOOL IF THEY HAVE "ALOT" OF STATEMENTED PUPILS???

[bizzey]

HI I have not posted a thread before but I have replied to some regarding statementing...and I am really confused about something ..

I have wanted my ds 3 to be assesed for over a year now but school(I now realise )seem to have been putting it off .

I am going to go for it but cant understand why school wouldn't want it as well ...my ds is using up alot of time with TA but needs more (aprox 2 1/2 ..3 yrs behind ....my view not proff yet )

He is on SA+ but I dont think enough is being done .

I wont go into the story yet (it is on a couple of other threads ..and I dont want to bore you ...!)

But isn't to the schools advantage to get the extra funding ...or does it look bad if they seem to have gone "over" the "normal ratio" for pupils with statements ????

IMO I don't thnk it looks bad, quite the opposite. A statement means the child gets the help and the extra support they need, rather than taking up another TAs time.

As I understand it, there are several possible reasons school may not be keen on statements:

1.they only get extra funding for 1-1 hours above 15 hours per week, so sometimes they wouldn't get more money anyway

1. risk of annoying the bosses at LEA - as statements are legally enforceable, whereas support given without a statement can be withdrawn a lot more easily

1. effort of submitting paperwork etc.

1. as you say, a school may be warying of seeming insufficiently "naice" if lots of pupils have statements etc.

1. LEAs often seem to apply their own criteria of dubious legality - e.g. that a child has to be "x" academic years behind, and school staff accept this.

5inthebed...thank you for repling...Well that is what I thought....I thought my SENCO was good ...well she is but Iwonder if her hands are tied ?...She fobbed me off with a story that they would only statement a child who needed the school adapted for physical/disability needs

And I believed it !!!!!!! And that school would have to put up 1/2 the money out of their budget !!!

He needs a TA to do ..daily.......physio
ot
lit/num/handwritting support

I cannot get him up to a level doing it at home on my own

a) exhausted just from the school day ..(due to body issues)
b)cannot process too much infomation in one go
c)do catch up but still need to do yr4 H/W so he dose not feel excluded

Oh why did I believe school

Thelightpassenger...thank you for repling.......Do I take then that if he got stamented for needing less than 15 hours ...school legaly pay and sort it out ...but if statemented for more they get money ???

Really sorry if I sound doppey and dense...I know statementing is a long and hard process,but I keep getting told different things.

Iknow diff LEAS have an x amount of delay to warrent it ...BUT ..reading ?mid yr1....writting...REC/Lower yr1/maths(numbers) low/mid yr1...high yr1 with alot of help from me ???

He is YEAR 4!!!

Comm pead has saked for ed pysc and said he should be statemented...poss dyspraxia/ADD/processing thing

So at least I have some back up .

That's different for different LAs. Never heard the 15 hours thing that bizzey mentions in my LA, and I often read things on here that don't apply in my LA.
Can't think of why the school wouldn't want to support a move to a Statement if it's needed though - the only thing that might be occurring is that there are others in the school who are higher priority ? Not saying that ought to happen, but, knowing how scare an Ed Psych's time is.... ?

Backfor good ...I didnt mentionn the 15 hours thing ...I did not know about that TLP did ....wonder why diff LA'S have have diff stratergies ?.

I know ed pysc's have long waiting lists ..I am just annoyed at myself for listening to school and not myself ...he might have been at the top of the waiting list by now .

ARGGGGHHHH so angry with myself now his gap is going to get bigger the longer I have to wait ...which I know is going to be 4/6 months !!!

I think you need to stop thinking about school pov and what money they will or won't get. Be pleasant and firm. Apply yourself for statutory assessment (sample letter on ipsea website) and then let school know you have applied. I have been told numerous times what I will and won't get for dd and ds. In fact it is best not to listen to all the resources led talk and just fight for what your ds NEEDS.

My understanding is that schools generally don't get extra funding for statement provision. Their overall budget has an inbuilt element to cover providing for SEN requirements. However I think that there are high incidence and low incidence classifications and this can mean that they are sometimes entitled to extra funding. Without a statement it is at the school's discretion as to what support they provide.

So the downside for a school is that the statement could specify far more assistance and interventions than they are currrenlty providing but no additional funding. It also gives parents far greater power to enforce the provision of the additional support.

bizzey, as far as I'm aware m/s schools have a pot of funds to be utilised for pupils with SENs. When a child is deemed as needing additional support, the funding comes out of that pot, but only a certain amount. If the child needs more support than can be allocated from the school, the LA has to provide the outstanding amount.

My DS was assessed as needing a lot of support. He was allocated five units from school and five additional units from LA. The total ten units equate to approximately 25 hours of 1:1 with his TA, per week. But he doesn't have a statement, this has been agreed on what his needs actually are. Equally it would probably be helpful for your son to have a DX, but technically he should get the level of support he needs without that either.

Of course it might be different in other areas.

I don't believe it's true that a child would only get a statement if the school had to be altered or adapted to accommodate a physically disabled child, and therefore if the Senco suggested this I wouldn't trust her at all. TheLightPassenger and cansu make a lot of sense

cansu...thank you .your very kind to the point view has made me realise I am looking at this the wrong way ! I have already drafted out a letter from the website and will tell SENco on tuesday when she is in

@bizzey I would like to add that you can start making list of problems your son is currently facing and all the things you can think of he would need from the school support because soon you will get a letter to provide details/evidences about your son (Form 1A I suppose). From my LA experience, based on this letter and another letter from school they would decide to go ahead or not.
HTH

Thank you all for replying ...I have x posted because my typing is sooo slow !!!

LOOKING I have made a list and it made me sad !!!

I am going to fight for him to get extra ...

My ds has a statement and he isn't physically disabled so school didn't need to be adapted in any way. But in our area school do have to pay first 15 hours and LEA pay the rest and there are quiet a few children in ds school with statements!

Oh thank you tiredness....no I didn't mean it like that ....just accidently left cap locks on ...and didn't know caps mean't shouting !! Can I change it ?? as I really don't want people thing I am shouting from the roof tops but I am really apprieciative of replies so far .

Sorry bizzey - yes, I meant TheLightPassenger in my post last night.
Excellent point from cansu.

My daughter recently got a low incidence needs statement and is currently transferring to a special school. She's 13 and is not physically disabled and is academically above average! We had a very supportive school and they did say that people ask why they have so many children getting statements! In our town a statement brings no extra money as it is all already distributed to the schools unless it is a low incidence needs statement like my DD's. I'm now dealing with my DS 5 and his SENCO is not helpful at all and I bet not many kids get statements in this school because they don't even do the required amounts of IEP's and don't involve parents!

There is some extra funding with statements in our LA - There are bandings from A-F for social, physical and academic needs, with F being the most severe and the overall banding being based on the most severe need. Both of my boys have an overall banding of E, but one is BDE (B for academic because he is very bright, but not A because he is severely underachieving) and the other DEE. The one with DEE brings the most extra funding into the school. I'm guessing this is an example of how the budget for low incidence needs is distributed.

Thanks everyone......sorry about cap locks on title !!

This is giving me a better understanding of the statementing system.

What is low incident needs statement?

A low-incidence Statement is for a Special Educational Need that does not occur frequently. When I first got my DD's statement I thought it meant she didn't need much support because of the way it was worded until I googled it! I am the queen of google ha ha!

Thank you sazale....I love mr Google as well , but he hasn't mentioned this to me yet !!!! I am going to check him out now !

//