ASD Refusal to Assess

[silverdarling]

DS (12) has recently been diagnosed with ASD. Despite general mutterings from the professionals that he "won' t get a statement" I felt we had to try as I am extremely concerned about his transition to high school in September 2013. Needless to say we have just received the refusal to assess letter on the grounds that his needs are being met by his cutrent School Action Plus status.

Had a meeting with the school SENCO and the Ed Psych yesterday and now just feel a bit deflated as I got the impression they did not feel we have a case for appeal.How do other parents feel that their ASD child copes at secondary without a statement? I guess I need to know if it is worth fighting this particular battle. DS has very slow processing, understanding and problems with concentration. Left to his own devices he produces next to no work. He does not have behavioural problems and so could drift completely in a secondary school environment.

You need to appeal their crass decision as a matter of course. Did they precisely state how his needs are being met at School Action Plus?. Probably not.

On a wider level have you as yet looked at secondary schools in your area or spoken to the SENCO within such schools?.

I would suggest you use IPSEA's refusal to assess pack which is on their website (you need the info from Page 4 onwards).

www.ipsea.org.uk

You are your child's best - and only - advocate. You are truly in the best position to fight his corner for him, this is also because no-one else will do so.

All I can say silver is follow your instincts and push for that assessment. Appeal straight away.

I'm in that position now and my dd 11 has just not coped and only been in for a grand total of 9 days, since September.

You need to fight as your dc can't - go to the ipsea website as suggested and do lots of research. Good luck.

Oh everyone gets told their children won't get a statement. Don't use that as a reason not to appeal.

Anyway, you're only asking for an assessment at this stage and tribunals usually order them if you appeal.

You should appeal immediately but there will not be sufficient time to get a statement in place by September 2013. Transition is a difficult time. Without a statement you have no ability to select a school. As soon as you know the high school he is to attend you must ensure that both the primary and the new high school develop an adequate transition package and that you meet with the SENCO at the high school. Download the ASD Transition Toolkit (autism educational trust).

Some DC do find the transition extremely traumatic - my DS was due to start middle school in September but has been unable to attend. DS is in the process of being statemented and his absence is medically authorised. Without that - if the transition goes wrong - you can easily end up in the postion that poor sweet is in.

Thanks all for yr boosting words. I have that mantra ' you are your child's best and only advocate' engraved on my heart and in fact quoted it to the high school SENCO who I finally managed to get through to this afternoon. She basically said carry on fighting or he won't get the 1-1 he will need to access the curriculum. So I will download the packs, gird up my loins and get on with that appeal. Any ideas of useful phrases very welcome. I also spoke to the LA Parent Partnership person and she was helpful, it's just finding the strength to carry on.

Useful phrases...complex needs....multiple needs......not achieving to his full potential.....

Worth arming yourself with the SEN code of practice and quoting relevant sections from there to highlight where/why you feel the LA has got it wrong, and quotes from professional reports to back this up where you can.

useful phrases
"hypersensitivity to .... A BARRIER TO LEANING"
"health and safety issue"
Social skills problems means a barrier to group work and therefore learning
Ot report perhaps re low muscle tone/ weak hand muscles - handwriting problesm - problems with ability to keep up

I don't know your DS but you have to turn every little problem around as being a barrier to learning or to accessing the national curriculum.

Typing with no glasses on. Excuse bad spelling please.

Great phrases thank you, keep them coming please! They are just the encouragement I needed.

Oh and if he needs help with transitions so that he is in the right frame of mind to be able to concentrate in the next lesson.
That he needs help with organisational skills?
Difficulties with proprioception
Needs movement breaks for concentration?
his language comprehensions skills are less advanced however, relative to his vocabulary?.. misleading others into expecting greater understanding from him?
Difficulty with inference
Difficulty with open ended questions - needs to have things broken into managable chunks
His social and emotional skills continue to fall ever further behind those of his peers making it difficult to integrate and be included by other children in group activities at school and elsewhere without more additional support than is currently provided.There is a barrier to his working co-operatively, and this often requires extra input from an adult for the whole group to work successfully

fidgeting may also be a way to control anxiety

His sensory and physical needs create barriers at school to his accessing the whole of the national curriculum

His inability to imagine himself as a third person creates a barrier to his accessing the full literacy curriculum

child?s needs are both physical, sensory, social and educational

Any good? I don't know how many of these may be applicable?

Thanks so much Alison, those are really great, it's wonderful to get some real practical help. His lack of comprehension and understanding are his major problems which impact on everything he does but he is still my boy and I just want to do my best for him.

Alison's phrases are great. Just bung your appeal in ASAP. Ring one of the helplines and run through your draft 'reasons for appeal' before posting. You'll get a tribunal date for 4-6m, but hopefully the LEA will see sense while you're waiting and decide to assess. Be aware he'll probably get a note in lieu and you'll need a second appeal for the actual statement.

Best thing I ever did was make extra sets of photocopied documents ready for the second appeal. And I saved our 'reasons for appeal' electronically, so a bit of editing and cut&paste saved me a load of duplicated work. Still have it all ready for the likely third appeal on (expected to be a bit rubbish) statement contents.

You might be lucky - although so many people are not and get an assessment first time - we did, the fight to get the statement right came later though.