Can a child on the sen register be exluded from school?

[TheStitchWitch]

I'm looking for advice for my friend, her 8 year old son has adhd and personality disorder, he is on the sen register but hasn't been statemented.
She was told on Friday that her son has been excluded until Wednesday for behaviour related issues.

Can the school do this? She feels like she's going round in circles and getting no support.

Yes.

The exclusion and lack of support are separate issues but a child with SEN can be excluded in the same way as any other.

It's a tricky issue, to be honest.

The technical answer is 'yes' but there are caveats.

A school can exclude any pupil who behaves in a way that is incompatible with the efficient education of other pupils, or whose behaviour causes harm or clear risk of harm to either themselves, their peers or their teachers.

However, a school is required by law to use their 'best endeavours' to support a child with SEN and if they exclude a child with SEN on the basis of having that SEN, then they can be deemed not to have used their best endeavours and they can also be deemed to be discriminating against them on the basis of their disability by not making reasonable adjustments.

So, scenarios where an exclusion may be justified include:

-exclusion for a fixed term after physical assault, while the school gathers advice on next steps
-exclusion for a fixed term while a school secures appropriate facilities/support for a child (e.g. a child can't work in close proximity to other children and goes into meltdown. School excludes for 3 days to identify a suitable area for working and organise a workspace and staffing adjustment)
-Permanent exclusion if all appropriate and reasonable measures have already been taken and fail, with consultation of the LA.

I'm hoping you've got your answers and everything has been sorted. Just in case it's still on-going, I know of instances where if the child has full time 1:1 support, s/he continues to get it even when s/he is excluded at home to ensure education does not suffer. Secondly, the legalities and what to do if they are not being followed are really well covered (with sample letters, references to the relevant acts, who to write to and so on) on the IPSEA website (www.ipsea.org.uk - in the reference section here) - It's worth checking out.

my son has a statement for 27.5 hours of 1:1 support and has done since 2010. he gets excluded every year, usually in summer term when he struggles with the heat.
the school are in their right to exclude if my son's behaviour is a risk to himself and others and to be fair his school do not exclude unless he is really aggressive.
In 2010 my son changed schools and was put on a part time timetable so that he could be steadily integrated into his new school. This took 5 months and during that time he wasn't getting his 27.5 hours of support because he simply wasn't in school for that amount of time. however because school, myself and the LA were in agreement with this arrangement there were no issues around the legalities.
My advice would be to ensure that there is an actual timescale for this 'slow integration' so that the school aren't dragging it out for longer than necessary.
If its likely to be a long term plan for him to be out of school then the LA should look at some sort of home tuition because of the statement.

This part of the board doesn't get many posts. If you post on the link below, you'll get loads more.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs