Statementing assistance please

[salondon]

Didn't want to high-jack Zumba's thread but have a similar question. LA(Barking and Dagenham) have agreed to assess my daughter(3.5 yr old, non verbal, GDD, ASD) for statementing. I will be doing the write-up for them. She starts reception in Sept 2014.

We are doing ABA (home based) and have only started 6 weeks ago. So I don't have enough evidence to show that ABA is working. I don't even know what kind of provision we want for her(I know, why then did I ask for a statement!?). What I do know for sure is that

• She will need a 1-1 for most part of the day
• We want her to go to an independent school, but there inst one in B&D. We live on the boundary of 3 boroughs and all 3 have independent schools and she has been invited for assessment. However, what is the point of going to an outside of your borough school? So we will compromise on the local primary.
• Moving inst an option for us. We'd rather fund a home program than move
• My ideal scenario is to be able to hold her back 2 years before she starts reception. I have been told to dream-on.
• Dont want her to go to a special needs nursery from Sept 2013. I want her to continue in her main stream private day care for next 18 months.

So what should I do at this stage?

• Do my write up and suggest 1:1 for 30+hrs/week
• Ask for ABA
• Do my write-up, present her difficulties and let them come up with an "offer"

Advice appreciated

For now, i would stick to
want mainstream,
want 1-1,
want current setting.

Because it'll be relatively easy to gather evidence of benefit for that, and they're unlikely to have major prejudices against it. ABA tends to be considered expensive and controversial, and so you'll risk a big fight before you've even given it a full trial.

If you get that lot in the proposed statement, you can then push for staying in the current nursery for reception year,
making sure you have full input into target setting,
and get ABA training for the 1-1.

She could skip school reception altogether, it's 'early years' so fits well into a 'nursery' setting anyway. Buys you time to figure out where she should do years 1&2 as well.

SA - am going to send you the doc I wrote at same stage as it may be useful - always say ABA is a means to an end (eg mainstream) not an end in itself. Can u pm your email?

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/applied_behavioural_analysis_3 this is what I found relating to your borough going back two years. It looks really encouraging.

Find out if any other parents in your LEA are dealing with them re ABA already and what approach are they taking and this should give you a good starting point for discussions.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I remember that FOI request

Hehe, I thought you might..

Someone was pretty busy at that time. Blimey.

Think it might be time for a round 2!?

MareeyaDolores - Skipping reception is on the cards. Very very early days so I don't want to say anything to nursery yet. I don't mind keeping her home 1/2 days and sending her to a mainstream day care for remaining 1/2 till she is 5(or even longer if I could).

Dev - Gosh you are good! Zumba had said to me that B&D have funded ABA before and I remember reading somewhere too.. Do you think I could send a letter to B&D and ask the same question (quoting the link you posted) for current status? Its been 2 years and I am sure more kids must be ABA-ed in schools now.

A few schools use ABA, another form of structured teaching.This includes Corbets Tey School in Havering and Treetops School in Thurrock. This local authority would place children in such maintained special schools when suitable. - This makes me think, if I work on Mareeya's suggestion(and use SickOf's ideas from her letter) - I can ask for a place in Treetops(I know one family in B&D whose son goes to Treetops - through tribunal if I remember correctly, should I call them now and ask for tips? Dont want to disturb people if its too early)

Do I have to name a school in my request a this stage? Or like Mareeya says - I can simply say that I want her to be mainstreamed in current setting. Her portage and SENCO have already written to the LEA that she needs an adult 1-1. How many hours 1-1 does 100% mean? 35hrs/week?

Or should I visit the local school and ask them about their ASD provision?

too many questions

I can't take credit for that at all. If you go on the www.whatdotheyknow.com/ website and type in 'applied behavioural analysis' you will see someone has done a lot of hard work to find out about this information. You could do the same, use the same format etc and write in as a freedom of information request and see what you get back from them.

and on everyones behalf, may I thank that someone.

I think more than telling you the number of ABA programmes each LA funds, the answers to those questions appears to tell an awful lot about the attitudes in general of each LA.

I learned a lot from reading them that wasn't about ABA.

The proposed statement should come and as an outcome of that you then get to name a school.

You could also at that point, tot up the cost of the provision they are offering in part 3 and suggest another way of meeting the needs in part 2.

I suspect though, that you will also be making changes to part 2 first. If this is the case you can ask for an ammended proposed statement to avoid mentioning ABA until all of the needs are properly specified.

yup.

well, not personally went I hope. Sent letters more like.

Yes wrote letters I meant.

Just use that same site to ask your own question. The beauty of it is that others can see the answers and imo it helps the whole cause that way (though obviously you have to put your own child's needs first).