Detentions for recognised problems that are on his SEN. WWYD?

[alison222]

So far this term, DS (Yr7 AS) has had several detentions that I think are unfair.
He has had a detention for not completing his homework when he had not written it down. In his statement it states that the teacher/ta are responsible for ensuring that he has correctly recorded his homework
The detention was given the same day at lunch so was over before I found out about it.
Then we had another yesterday for not having a pencil sharpener. Again detention at lunch so it has already happened. He has problems with organisational skills. They are clearly noted in his SEN.

I know that he needs to learn these skill, but am I being unreasonable in thinking that a detention is not the way to teach him this and will not help at all.

My instinct is to try to explain this to the teachers who clearly don't get it but I am not sure how best to do this.
WWYD?

I am currently in dispute with DD1's school about this.

I have asked the school what they are trying to achieve by punishing her. You could do the same while pointing out that punishing him won't improve his organisational skills or remove his need for an adult to record his homework.

You can also contact the SENCo and ask them to propose ways to prevent this situation occurring again as repetitions of this type of incident will affect his well-being in school.

Ask them if they think a review of his statement is required in order to ensure his needs are met or if this can be done by changing his IEP. That should focus their minds a bit.

Goldmandra I am still trying to get them to actually do what is in the statement. I don't want to review it at this stage .
I will contact the SENCO and the key TA who works with him, but the individual teachers just don't get it, clearly!
They need to help him not punish him (although since detention seems to involve sitting inside with a book he is as happy as Larry).

Fair enough if you don't want to review the statement. Maybe just ask them to update his IEP to include something about help with organisation and contacting the SENCo for advice before issuing a detention.

The individual teachers should all have copies of the statement and the IEP and be expected to make adjustments in order to meet his needs.

Lunchtime detention for not completing homework can sometimes be 'Well, sit in the library and do it now so you don't fall behind'. Not good as a long term solution but as an occasional measure it's probably better than carrying the homework forward along with this week's lot.

Detention for not having a pencil sharpener is not acceptable.This has helped my ds a lot with having the right stuff at the right time (although I do have to prompt him every night and replace the items quite often)

For now, I would probably write a polite, very brief note to each teacher concerned thanking them for noticing the problems, mentioning his SEN and suggesting an easy-to-implement and more effective way of dealing with whatever specific triggered the detention. restraining the impulse to write just read his statement you numpty With a request to be informed if there isn't any improvement.

And after collecting copies of several notes, if the detentions didn't stop / diminish markedly, I'd bring the file to the SENCO and/or year head asking what they planned to do about the problem [year]

I think that Ellen has posted previously on the problem of multiple teachers and inconsistencies. She mentioned a sort of electronic passport that accompanies the child from class to class which records key info so that the teacher is less likely to do or say something inappropriate.

What sort of pencil case does he have? Maybe one with moulded plastic holders for all the different bits and pieces would help him to notice what was missing?

I have written to the SENCO asking her to find out about this as it seems ridiculous to get a detention for something so minor.
Then I got more info out of DS. Apparently a teacher did an "equipment check" and about half a dozen of them got detentions for the same thing. Seems a bit OTT to me.
Re the pencil case, he has one of the long personalised ones so that he can fit a 30cm ruler into it, and won't countenance anything else, but thanks for the idea, I will look out to see if I can see anything more suitable.

Electronic passports sound a good idea. I will talk to DS and see if they check the children in each lesson and so if the teacher would have something popping up on a screen anyway.

They need to remember this is his disability.

Ask them "If he had difficulty walking, would they make sure there were no obstacles in the way or would they install a ramp?" Both reasonable adjustments1
Not offering your son the support he needs to achieve is no different, they need to "make reasonable adjustment" Ensuring his homework is correctly noted & helping him to check he ahs the tools for the classroom is a "reasonable adjustment" just the same as moving furniture or installing a ramp would be for a physical disability.

Sometimes people need it spelling out for them

Oo, a namecheck! Yes, DS2 is in Y8 and he has full time 1:1. His pupil passport is electronic and pops up on the teacher's laptop when they take a lesson register at the start of each lesson. Brilliant idea, so long as they look at it! His states that the teacher or TA must check that his homework is written down, but TBH, the TA does it for him and sometimes I don't understand what they've written and DS doesn't pay attention because they are doing it for him. Getting a detention for not doing homework that hasn't been written down is pointless and punishing the wrong person! The teacher or TA has failed to do their job and should be the one punished.

A detention for not having a pencil sharpener! Sounds like a teacher having a bad day.

It is tricky in a big school, it takes time for the teachers to get to know everyone. In that case an efficient communication system is essential. Teachers won't get around to reading a statement, they need easy access to a summary of the main points that they won't just lose. Meeting with or call to the SENCo to find out how your DS's needs and provision is communicated, I think.

DS2 had a detention once for picking bubbled paint off the wall in the corridor. The teacher giving the detention didn't know DS2 and let him off once she realised he had SN. There are some advantages.

If this continues you may need to point out that they are punishing him for his disability, that they have a duty to make reasonable adjustments, and that they are in effect discriminating against him on the grounds of his disability. I suspect that if they got the whiff of a potential disability discrimination claim they might try a bit harder.

Also, don't let them mess around too long with not giving him what's in his statement. Ultimately it's the local authority's responsibility to ensure that everything in the statement is provided, and it might be that some intervention from them might help. In the final analysis you could mention the possibility of judicial review action.

I know this is all fairly extreme and obviously it's better if you can have a reasonable relationship with the school and avoid matters getting to this stage, but for your son's sake this sort of thing can't be allowed to continue.

Ds has a folding 30cm ruler

I had this in Y7 with DD. Until I went apeshit at the school because she has always been a school refuser and they were making my mornings so stressful by making her school refusal worse that it was exacerbating my epilepsy...

They stopped giving her detentions for stuff connected to her SN's after that...

And there IS a light at the end of the tunnel - DD is now in Y10, and she has discovered sort of 'organised'. SHE is finally writing down her homework in her planner, SHE managed to get appointments with all her teachers for parents evening (Y7/8/9 I ended up having to email HoY to get appts with all her teachers), SHE is packing her own bag each night, SHE is remembering 99% of the time when she has a test she needs to revise for, SHE is remembering to give me at least 48 hrs notice of what ingredients she needs for Catering.

I had given up on it ever getting to this stage, and it seemed to all sink in at once, overnight, at the start of Y10, after 10 years of me trying to get her to do it and banging my head repeatedly against a brick wall.

So it may well get better in the end if you persevere!

I tried being nice to the school, explaining why these detentions weren't helping, and were in fact making things worse, but hot nowhere repeatedly. It was only when I went apeshit that they listened!

Ah, yes, me going apeshit did include the fact that they weren't making 'reasonable adjustments' for her disabilities...

I got an email from DD1's school tonight which basically said they would not impose the detention they have given her for not being able to communicate with staff but that she is lying about it and she could have communicated perfectly well.
Clearly the statement is wrong then!!!

goldmandra .

I wrote to the school and said I hoped that it was just the individual teacher that was unaware and that punishing him for a disability that was noted in his statement was fundamentally wrong and counter productive and that if he was having problems I was expecting the school to be helping him with them and asked them to investigate and let me know what they were going to do going forwards.
I've had an I'll look into it type of response so far.

mariamamma I like the folding ruler - may buy one

That sounds like a good email. it gives them a get out clause in that they can say it was just a one off. They will then have the opportunity to remind everyone about his individual needs so they don't have you on their backs for a while again.

I need to rant before I can write a polite e-mail to the school now.
I have just received an e-mail from the teacher who set the detention who tells me she is aware of DS's difficulties. That this is not the first time he has not had all his equipment ( no shit Sherlock? ), that he ws trying to take that of the person next to him so he didn't get into trouble and that he was not upset when he was given the detention.

So I want to write and tell her that she is clearly missing my point about disability discrimination, that all she is doing is making him anxious about not being found out and that this won't solve the problems ( and why would DS who really feels the cold be unhappy about staying in at lunch anyway?)

Help me word this politely without being rude which is what I want to do.

Dear teacher,

I understand from your email that there have been previous occasions on which my DS has been short of equipment. Bearing in mind that his inability to organise his own equipment is recognised in his statement could you please inform me of what action you took at this time to support him and prevent this problem from occurring again?

Children with AS often experience high levels of anxiety without expressing the openly in school. In my opinion it is possible that his actions in trying to take items from another child were probably a result of this anxiety in combination with his difficulty in appreciating the needs of the other pupil. This, also, is a commonly recognised trait in children with AS.

It is clear that my son did not have the support he needs to ensure he was fully equipped for your lesson and he should not be punished for this.

It is, of course, not appropriate that he should take items from another pupil and I imagine this was explained to him at the time. Is there an alternative strategy for him to use when he realises he is without an essential piece of equipment and needs support to manage this problem? If so, perhaps this could be suggested to him.

I understand that you must be able to manage unacceptable behaviour with appropriate sanctions. However on this occasion I do not feel that the sanction was appropriate, nor was it likely to be effective. The point of issuing a sanction is to modify the behaviour of a pupil. My son is unable to modify his own behaviour in terms of being more organised or in terms of understanding the needs of others. Longer term support and learning strategies to help him aquire these skills are what is required.

Just a suggestion which you will no doubt need to edit a fair bit.

Thanks - Its soooo much politer than my first draft - which did let me vent my spleen a bit though.

I am still over a bloody pencil sharpener though!

Will have to think a bit.

I still so want to say " I did hope that you were unaware of DS's difficulties rather than intentionally discriminating against a disability that is clearly indentified in his SEN".

And I know it would cause too many waves......

I have found that it's better to hold back and sound very professional. If they think you're just venting they can put you down as a loon and ignore you.

A parent who can put together a clear case to show the teacher is not doing their job is much more scary.

Try to remove all emotion and opinion. State the facts and give them timescales in which they should sort out their practice and get back to you.

It's not so gratifying but I am very grateful to the clear-headed people who have read through and edited my emails for me over the years.

I hope this teacher thinks this through properly now.

Is it worth suggesting to them that they could make a reasonable adjustment by having spare supplies to lend to him if he doesn't have a piece of equipment, coupled with a discreet arrangement whereby he can ask for this without letting the other pupils know?

Apparenly the teacher did this the first time with a calculator - so why she thinks that it is not reasonable the second time for a pencil sharpener heaven knows.
Anyway don't most kids just borrow a pencil sharpener? and DS is only yr 7 and his maths lessons aren't even using them - this is just a random teacher taking registration ( not form teacher)

It sounds like this teacher is working on the principle that your DS just needs someone like her to make his responsibilities clear to him and then he will learn to be more organised. She isn't accepting that this is a disability.

Dear teacher x

Thank you for letting me know that the equipment issue is an ongoing problem, and that the detention did not seem to have much effect on ds. It is useful to have your support in teaching him that taking equipment from classmates is not a suitable long-term strategy.

As you know, DS has special educational needs. His statement provides for targeted support and teaching to develop his poor organisational skills. If this is proving difficult, perhaps we should meet and I can advise you on which methods are most successful in overcoming similar difficulties at home.

Further detentions for being unable to perform tasks related to his disability are likely to be ineffective, counter-productive, and would constitute discrimination.

Further detentions for being unable to perform tasks related to his disability are likely to be ineffective, counter-productive, and would constitute discrimination.

I love that sentence, although I might put 'for reasons related to...'.

That one sentence says it all really.