Out of County Special School

[WaitingForStatement]

Hi peeps. I am waiting, any day now, for my son's statement to arrive. Assuming he gets it, we are going to push for a specialist school. I have been told by a few people that our local ASD school is full to bursting so I know it may be a struggle. I have found out that there is another ASD school in the next county, it is literally only 9 miles from my doorstep. If I struggled to get him in the local one, how difficult would it be to fight for the out of county school (it actually looks better but this is only going on Ofsted so I may be wrong). Any pearls of wisdom?

hi, generally, it depends on whether the local school can meet his needs and have room - you might be surprised at how many they can fit in ! have they offered him a place ? to go out of county you have to prove that local county provision cannot meet need - it will all be done to budgets - its cheaper for in county than out of county so they will fight you unless the school is full and they can't place him in county. I would go and visit both schools and get a feeling for them. I would read the ofsted reports but not choose a school based on them. good luck

Have the LA agreed to a specialist placement or mainstream?

If the special school is full, they may well make a case for mainstream first.

Out of county is usually a fight, but sometimes the fight isn't tooth and nail, just one of stamina.

He is in ms and my understanding is that his current school will prob be named. They don't want him. I don't want them either really, I think he does need specialist. Think I can make a good case for special but quite a few peeps have mentioned how full it is. I don't want to slate his current school though, staff are lovely, it's the senior team that want him out. So I need to focus on why he needs specialist. If its a case of waiting a while for the one I want, I want him to stay put until that option becomes available. But I would rather he went further afield for ASD school than a more generic special school.

Wish the bloody statement would hurry up. I am slowly going bonkers imagining all the different scenarios.

My son goes to an out of county special school, on the basis that another special school was full. They came back and tried to persuade us MS with 1:1 would be a viable option but we threatened appeal and asked to have the out of county school named (30 miles away) on the basis it fulfills his needs. I meant it - I would have appealed. The other school is 12 miles away but still within county.

Thanks Gotta That's interesting, I was thinking along those lines. The local one is on the doorstep, but the out of county one is pretty close too.

Doh! That should be bold not strike through. I have statement related stress disorder!