Is a DSP / unit a specialist school placement?

[bjkmummy]

I want a special school. LA want to place him in designated special provision in a mainstream class as per the working document.

They also keep referring to this designated special provision as a special school so there fore he cannot access autism outreach as she does not provide support for special school. He will also be offered nothing else extra.

However the letter re placement states that he will be in the mainstream part of the school ie mainstream class full time with support from a TA. I do not see how this is 'specialist' placement - it is exactly what we have now which has failed plus his current school is half the size of the school LA are quoting.

The schools ofsted states its a mainstream school.

So how do I win the argument that this placement is just a mainstream place with a senco who has a bit more SEN knowledge and that it is NOT a special school which is what the LA are arguing - clearly it's a ridiculous argument but I need some kind of legal definition of what a special school is. My LA have no special schools only this add on provision in a mainstream school so think that's why the say its a special school to try and hoodwink parents as any other special schools will be out of county.

It's specialist provision in a mainstream school, not a special school. That argument will be easy to make and the tribunal will back you. Ofsted document as evidence (what does it say about SEN?)

So you will be weighing up the 'specialistness' of the support plus the difference in environment. OT report 'should' be able to help with that?

You will also be arguing the toss about what kind of 'peers' your ds needs. It is usually argued that the mainstream setting provides models. However that in itself is a lame argument because if children with ASD could learn social behaviour from their peers, they wouldn't HAVE ASD. Social skills have to be specifically taught, and by a specialist with x number of years experience and certain qualifications.

I suspect their argument about why ASD Outreach isn't needed, is based on the fact that you can prove it is lame (i.e. qualifications).

So, your child needs a)a particular ENVIRONEMENT to learn, b)a certain peer group, c)a reduced peer group (so that he can develop relationships without being overwhelmed) to minimise distractions, d)On site and ongoing OT embedded into the lesson to keep him engaged and on task and to stop him from fidgetting, SALT on an individual and goup basis with a class teacher supported by a SALT, but importantly, the class teacher is EXPERIENCED at delivering lessons with SALT in mind and does it on a daily basis and has done for all the years that he/she has been teaching there.

What is the cost difference?

a lot - mainstream place is £18k a year plus cost of OT which is £3.5k from my quote or £850 from LA quote then theres cost of SALT and there would be transport although that wouldnt be much.

my school is £41k plus transport which will be a lot as the school is an hours drive away. OT and SALT are included in the cost of the school. i just need to blow this mainstream school out of water which i can do and plus he went there 2 years ago and lasted 6 weeks. LA willa rgue he wasnt statemented then but that in reality makes no difference except that he would have a TA - thats the only difference. my LA are obsessed with keep saying this kind of palcement is 'specialist' when it isnt. they have one class with 5 severely autitsic kids in who dont access mainstream at all and the rest will be in the mainstream by my son and i know that they share TAs so its not even 1:1. they did have a 2nd class which my elder son was in until he left to go to secondary but as soon as my son left the school quietly closed the class as the 'arsey' parents had left. the children left were placed in the mainstream and have struggled.

You might KNOW that it won't be 1:1, but they will swear blind that it will be.

How many direct SALT hours will be granted in the MS placement?

1 hour a week is roughly £3k btw, thouth they will argue it is nil as the SALT is already contracted.

Also, for MS to even be vaguely viable (and it isn't because the environment is such that he'll have to spend most of the time outside of the classroom) in order to learn he'll not just need a babysitting TA, he'll need a HLTA who commands a salary close to a qualified teacher. Not so at SS, which due to the expertise of the staff means your ds needs much LESS 1:1 supervision and affords him MORE of a chance at inclusion.

got my fingers badly burnt at this school when my elder son was there. we moved here and there are no special schools so my elder son was given a unit placement and the swore he would be in the unit - the reality was that he was in the mainstream with a part time TA after coming from specialist asd school.

salt is 45 mins direct contact plus 45 mins social group work. they have salt at the mainstream as far as i know

Have you tried Googling at all? When I was searching for schools I noticed that some counties had lists of all their schools and the types. You may then have some evidence of what the LA class it as.

Meant to say that the mainstream don't have salt as far as I'm aware - will just be the NHS bod popping once in a while though most asd kids here get discharged as my own son did when he was 5 years old. The private report shows that he has significant delay in his expressive language.

So, you need to agree what he needs wrt salt input then too!?

DS is HFA and had weekly 1 hour, to be watched by a Higher Level TA who had worked in a SALT base and had 4 years experience delivering salt programmes, who would then replicate therapy 3 more times per week.

That was when he was in mainstream.

Bloody ineffective crap that we didn't want but they threw it at us on the day of the tribunal after saying he had no SALT needs, and the panel bought it as it was untried and looked good on paper.