State School cannot meet needs and Tribunal - please advise

[bunnybb]

My DS was issued with a very badly/basic statement in Dec 2012 - we issued appeal and hearing meant to take place in May 2013. LEA agreed to 30 hours of ABA in Dec 2012.

In the meantime we obtained all independent reports (SLT, EP and OT)with a view to have a properly written/quantified statement.

Review meeting with the LEA took place in April and we mentioned about provision for reception and named a local mainstream school.

Upon receipt of the reports, the State school has confirmed that they cannot meet my sons needs and also since nothing is quantified, they are unable to take my son on. They are a larger than average state school

We reluctantly had to postpone tribunal in May as LEA .has not provided an evidence - they only got their EP to assess DS a week before the hearing. Still awaiting for hearing date for July. we made it very clear that we were ready to go in May 2013.

Further to state school refusal, we approached a small independent mainstream school, about 5-6miles away, who agreed to take my DS- small setting - only 12 children in reception 2013. They agree to have ABA shadow in school and have had children with statement etc

LEA have not mentioned anything about school provision for 2013. Our experts say full time 1:1 support even in independent school at least for reception (with a view of fading).

Has anyone been in similar position - did the LEA agree to name the independent school and also pay fees and/or support.

any advice would be most welcome as we're hoping to meet lea and settle the matter.

Think you need a professional advocate.

Local school wont take him, you have the relevant private reports but council didn't bother to assess till a week pre tribunal so it got postponed. Something fishy is going on.

ABA and independent school from reception is unlikely to be LAs first choice. I've never heard of anyone getting similar without tribunal.

I think Mareeeya is right.

Is ds getting any education at the moment? If not you might be able to get legal aid to enforce this.

When does your child turn 5?

Legally a child doesn't have to start school/education till the term AFTER they turn 5. I know a few parents of summer birthday children who used this little rule to enable their children to start formal school in Year 1 rather than reception.

Just wondering if the LA are deliberating delaying things, as every term that passes is a term they don't have to fund iyswim? The reception year could easily be spent with your child out of school, getting NO support from any public source while they faff around. The LA will suffer no penalty whatsoever for using this tactic and you might even decide to "go away" in that time.

In my experience, the LEA will not like a mainstream independent school.

If this school is saying that they have Statemented children, who are paying these children's school fees - the parents or the LEA? I know it is common in some mainstream independent schools to have Statemented children but the school fees are paid for by the parents.

Regardless as to who is paying the fees, from bitter experience, I would be very very cautious about placing a SEN child in any mainstream independent school unless I had absolute proof that they were up to providing my child's needs. If possible, talk to parents from the school whose children have a similar profile to your child. You will learn a lot more frank opinions from the parents then you will ever learn from the school who will be busy protecting their image.

Having my DS languishing in a very prestigious independent school from reception to year 3 has caused no end of problems for us. Emotionally - I've had to home ed my child for the last year to get him back on an even-level. Educationally - I totally and utterly wasted my money paying the fees for 4 years (his usevere dyslexia means that he is 3 to 4 years behind now). Statement-wise - my indie EP has said that if he'd been in state school he would have been SAed years ago. She also said that his school has done long-term damage to his esteem and mental health because they did not know how to cope with him. He now has massive avoidance tactics to do any form of literacy work - this was caused entirely by the school not knowing how to cope with him. LEA-wise - mine absolutely hates the school he was at so acted even more obstructively because of the very fact of the school he went to. School-wise - they may simply not be geared up for your child's needs. You will probably find that all is relatively well-controlled for reception through to year 2. But come year 3, then the cracks will widen into gapping holes.

In my son's school's case, the school more-or-less chuck out those children whose SEN becomes too much for them to cope with (I walked before we received THAT letter!)

Dear all, many thanks for response. Yes DS is in a private mainstream nursery 3 full days and doing pretty well, with ABA shadow full time. Also doing ABA at home. He often attends nursery without ABA shadow and copes pretty well.

He has progressed so well with ABA< we have all the evidence to demonstrate his progress with ABA.
FS is assisting us in this matter.
The independent school is a very small one, 12 children in reception and they seemed very accommodating etc. They have and have had experience with children with SEN - in some cases the LEA have fully funded support and fees and in other cases parents paid for fees whilst LEA paid for support.

We were keen to go for a state school but state saying they cannot meet his needs as they are a big school - so what do we do? A unit is definitely not for DS; he is verbal and high functioning..
DS progressing very well in mainstream setting and very keen to model his peers etc.

No reason for state school to say this as with full time ABA programme their input can be minimal. Ds has ABA in mainstream and home. We used FS. He went 3 half days in reception increased to 5 by spring and 6 in year one. I have been disappointed with how little teachers have got involved and I don't doubt in indi school teachers would not have got away with this but bottom line is with a good ABA programme school can do nothing and it doesn't really impact on education. Certainly initially ds was like a visitor and his main learning went on outside school with school used for social skills etc. he is now learning in groups and accessing some learning still not as much as he learns in 1:1. Has th school any experience of ABA? Will you be using aba staff and not school TA? Most schools don't know what ABA involves. Try and get them to see programme in nursery and your team to reassure school they will be meeting most needs. All we ask school to do is help plan academics which is no more than they do for any other child. In our case teachers have seen how well looked after ds is and left even that to ABA but that's another story. If you want state you can ask for it to be named and school will need to go to tribunal and explain how even with ABA support they cannot meet need. I would think you have a good chance as my son is nowhere near fading ABA at 6.5 and so yours must be more advanced. Perhaps school are worried about what will happen once ABA fades? The tribunal will almost certainly find resources can be given to school to make it work. What about putting school in touch with those with experience ABA? Bottom line though if this school really does not want him you may be better finding another mainstream school that does. I think you will be hard pressed to win 30 hours ABA and indi at age 4. You may run risk of LA naming SS instead on costs grounds.

'Some' LAs have been training their schools to say that they won't allow ABA because it is at odds with their ethos, which makes any tribunal awarded ABA incompatible with their school. A bit like a listed building might be to wheelchair access (not)!

Can you get the contact details of the parents of children who were at the school with a similar profile and have a chat to them just to make sure?

Agnes. I agree with comments. LEA will not agree to 30 hours of ABA at small independent school - no way- But our experts say that DS should certainly have 1:1 full time ABA in reception at least. Tribunal has been listed again but in the meantime I would prefer to negotiate with LEA and come to an agreement. I personally prefer a smaller setting.
head of SENCO at state school had met our consultant and seemed happy with ABA etc, but she then changed her mind and the school said they cannot accommodate my DS. I would not like to send DS to a school that does not want him!!!!
If LA agree to name independent school and part support, I will top it up as I would like DS to be supported full time in reception.
Small indi school seems very warm and the head is happy to work with us.

I will definitely speak to the parents at the school and ensure that they are happy etc etc.

DO you know any parents who have had independent school named on statement?