Exclusion - can we do anything about this?

[Cheeseswept]

Also posted in Education but would appreciate any thoughts on this.
Ds has a statement of SEN and was recently permanently excluded after school said they couldn't meet his needs. We believe that he was excluded for reasons relating to his disability and were awaiting a date for the disciplinary hearing and then go forward to the independent review panel. The exclusion caused our son and family a huge amount of distress and there are now various (untrue) rumours going around the local community and we have also had incidents outside our house from kids at the school.
It now looks like the exclusion will be withdrawn as his statement is being amended to name another school (specialist). I really don't think it would have help up at review anyway and we would have been happy to go to tribunal about the discrimination.
So school have basically got what they wanted (ds not in their school) and are not held to account in any way whilst we have to live here and suffer the consequences .Is it right that school can cause all this distress and just get away with it?

No, it isn't right, but if the exclusion is withdrawn you're probably better off concentrating on the move to the new school and making sure the statement is right. You could go through the complaint procedure, but don't hold your breath expecting the governors to find in your favour.

Legally, the exclusion has not been withdrawn until the school, writes to you to say that it has been withdrawn.

In any case, the way in which the school has manages itself during this incident would appear to suggest that the school did not have in place the necessary strategies or support structures to meet the child's needs.

Exclusion should not be used as a means to the end to get a child to change school.
Accordingly, the school may have discriminated against the child.

Suggest that you make enquiries to see if whether there are grounds for a claim of disability discrimination under the Equality Act.
If you are happy to go to the tribunal in the 1st place then I would still go to it now for the reasons that you have stated.
I would agree with the comment about governors. Very few governors have the knowledge or experience of disability discrimination to be able to make any sort of informed contribution to an exclusion or complaint hearing on these matters.

Thanks. I have spoken to a solicitor who feels that it does appear to be a case of discrimination. The school behaviour policy makes no allowances for disabilities either. School should have sent all the witness statements and paperwork to us by now but we haven't heard a peep from them and the hearing must be heard in the next few days .
I am wondering why the LA exclusion officer wants to discuss 'delaying' or withdrawing the exclusion with us rather than the school contacting us directly.

Because the exclusions officer now realises that the school has got it wrong and is trying to support the school by getting you to withdraw.
The bigger question is that it is clear that the child has very significant needs that are not being addressed that should certainly be grounds for either a statutory assessment or a review of the statement to ensure that there is sufficient support in place to ensure that this does not happen in the future.

Nigel1 We were asked to delay the meeting as the sm was not able to be amended in time. We made various points including the fact that a full investigation was not carried out and said that we were quite happy to take the appeal further. That same day the sm was amended and the exclusion withdrawn.
Our main issue now is that loads of children are talking about it and saying that teachers/TA's have told them that he was excluded for 'attacking' staff. It is also out on a social networking site with one child even naming the staff that had been talking about it. The incident was not witnessed by any child so the fact that they know about it means that the information could only have come from staff at the school. I was under the impression that all exclusions should remain confidential and the fact that this isn't is causing a load of distress .

Given the above, and that this information must have come from the school, why don't you speak to the head teacher explain what is happening and get an agreed statement between yourself and the head teacher as to actually what did happen and kill it dead.
Get the headteacher to get all of the school staff together and give them one agreed line and then repeat that information in assembly. You may also wish to point out that by not acting to stop this the school are in fact condoning it, and the original incident occurred as a direct result of the child's disability and have they thought about the about the Equality Act.
Generally speaking, the best way to fight bad information is with good information. At the same time make sure it goes out on the same social networking site with the heading "XXX the facts."
Make sure these discussions/agreements are also entered onto the school file for your child.

Hope this helps

We have never had any contact with the HT before other than the exclusion letter. He is very unlikely to want to talk to us as he has wanted ds out of the school for a long time. The exclusion withdrawal letter states that any queries are to go through the LA. Complaints we have had in the past about inappropriate remarks made by staff to ds and about ds have never been responded to. The school had no intention of meeting us to discuss the exclusion as they had planned to withdraw it when the sm was amended (LA have confirmed this). We feel in limbo as, although the exclusion was quite clearly discriminatory in our view, because they then withdrew it we can do nothing about it.

There is a difference between a complaint and a queries. The school excluded the child - there was a deprivation of education when he was excluded -the school are capable of being held liable under the Equality Act.

Exclusion is not to be used as an alternative to following the correct procedure of an emergency annual review in these incidents. The child is at the school. They can not refuse to meet you.
You can still appeal.

Sorry Nigel- can you clarify this please. I presumed that to go ahead with a discrimination claim the exclusion had to stand - can't the school just say that it's been withdrawn and therefore didn't exist as such? I thought we had to go through a gov's disciplinary meeting for the exclusion to be upheld before proceeding with an Equality claim. We have been told that as it was withdrawn there will be no meeting. Also, guidelines state that a HT can withdraw an exclusion before the disciplinary hearing if necessary.
An emergency annual review had been held shortly before the exclusion where they told the LA that they couldn't meet his needs. The LA then told them that they had to do all they could to avoid permanently excluding him.

Sorry it's taken me so long to come back to you on this.

The exclusion does not have to stand. The question is "as a result of the exclusion has the child suffered some form of discrimination". From what you have said here, and I haven't read the papers, I would suggest that there has been. There could well be therefore a claim for discrimination under the Equality Act.

There is no need to go before the governor's disciplinary meeting because to be blunt and without being disrespectful to any governors who may read this, the vast majority of governors do not get the Equality Act and to see their duty as supporting the headteacher and teachers, ignoring their duty to the child.

Although the exclusion may have been withdrawn there is still no reason why you cannot speak the governing body, or more risk realistically two or three members of it or you could ask to speak to the chair of governors and explain your concerns.

If a child has been subject to an exclusion the exclusion remains on the childs record, i.e. cannot be expunged. What should then happen is that the headteacher enters a clear and unambiguous letter, copied to you, on to the file explaining what has happened and that he regards the exclusion as having been rescinded.

The emergency annual review was the correct process to follow. What should of course have happened is that the LEA should have taken responsibility for the child and put in additional support. Perhaps one might also want to ask the local authority why they failed to act more aggressively and supportively of the school.

Hope this is of help

Thanks. Will have to take stock and decide what to do.
Have received copies of school records which are a bit of an eye opener but the full records from the exclusion are missing. Have discovered that Ofsted were in very soon after he was excluded too .