Please help I am about to be fined for Ds lateness

[Skylar123]

I need to find medical evidence that Ds's anxiety is causing his frequent lateness/recent school refusal.

Does this count as evidence;
Consultant Paed report states -

In my view Ds does exhibit significant symptoms of ASD but I believe there are other significant comorbidities in particular, his anxiety state which seems to be affecting him quite a lot particularly in preventing him going to school.

It then goes on to say that Ds should be referred to CAMHS asap.

Camhs reports says-
There are concerns that Ds is experiencing anxiety. I think that his anxiety is directly linked with ASD, not mental health issues. Ds becomes particularly anxious and shows particular difficult behaviour associated with this, at the time when he is to go to school. It is clear that Ds does not want to go to school and it is likely that Ds is finding school a very difficult place to be, given his difficulties.

Please can anyone tell me if any of this can count as medical evidence Ds anxiety is the reason he is often late for school.

Thank you

Yes. Don't say he's distressed at home because of this, but you can say he shows considerable distress. Just don't mention 'home'. Coz then the focus will switch to the home.

If you ever have to mention non-school things then do it like that. Ie outside of school.

Ds was accused of being unable to generalise the skills he already had that they were insisting he needed teaching in school because of this. I demonstrated that he was able to generalise from home to park, to swimming pool, to camping and it was just school that he coukdn't so the problem we needed to identify is what barriers the school was puting in the way of him demonstrating the skills he had everywhere else.

Professionals really loathe 'home'. I'm trying to home school but the hoops I have to jump through to demonstrate that ds will learn things no-one expects him to learn in school is ridiculous, as well as the assumptions that I'm really thick, know nothing about my son or how to teach him.........

Been homeschooling for a year now.

The LA insist on monitoring me Star - just been told his curriculum is too advanced and therefore unsuitable. I'll not dumb him down, as he enjoys stretching his brain cells - but instead will save up for one of those little flip cameras, so that I can demo exactly how we work for next term's meeting. I do need to develop some more detailed monitoring and tracking methods to satisfy the tree destroyers.

It HAS been a worthwhile exercise even if he winds up eventually being forced back into school at some point. He's made progress in all sorts of areas that I honestly don't think would have happened at school. eg developing imaginative play, learning to take telephone calls, all sorts of life skills that schools with the best will in the world just don't have time to teach with the level of precision he needs.

Basically I'm gonna keep going until I can't iyswim.

Now you see I don't mind being monitored PROVIDED it is by someone competent.

'the hoops I have to jump through to demonstrate that ds will learn things no-one expects him to learn in school is ridiculous'

That doesn't just apply to home ed though!. The hoops I had to jump through at old crap school, egos I had to manage, egg shells walk on, nasty meetings I had to endure, comments about how curriculum would accelerate away from him and there was nothing the teacher could do (and she would be too busy teaching the other kids anyway)…fast forward to new school and DS is now performing just below expected levels almost across board (despite massive language gaps and deficits). In maths he's only just below average. Average for end of Yr 2 is a 2B apparently and he's 2C (only because he can't understand word problems so skips half the tests out). This time last year old school told me he was p levels across board, the reason his writing book was empty was because I had unrealistic expectations a child like mine could write and his needs were so extreme he didn't really belong in a mainstream school anyway and it was unreasonable for me to expect him to be taught by the teacher / as part of group.
No belief he could do it until I & ABA stepped in, taught him at home and proved he could.
New school really positive, I'm the one wobbling about whether to move him up to Yr 3 (he's in mixed year class and half children won't be moving so I was thinking of keeping him in Yr 2 another year) and new school and ABA are reassuring me he's ready and can stay with his age group / gap is not too big!

DS has a typical spiky profile - I think it's just a question of waiting till they get their heads round it, and shaking off the last of the fairy tale reports from the old LA. Like most things involving local authorities the wheels turn very slowly. I've got David Urani booked in for the start of next term, to give ME a baseline that makes sense to work off which should help.

DS is 1b for Maths agnes and on p levels still for literacy (and every other subject including music despite the fact he plays two musical instruments well and sings . I cannot take away the leaps he has made in language development nor the fact that he has genuine friendships but even they could have been learned faster I am certain.

It's time for a move/change. I have a school in mind post HE but would look insane telling anyone that as my plan but no more insane than asking for ABA and all I have to go on is this experience that I HAVE got a clue and most professionals don't.

That does sound fab though Agnes, Like you have FINALLY won the struggle for an adequate education for your ds. I sincerely hope his school keep supporting the continuation of the ABA intervention for as long as he needs it.

Boch Good luck with the EP.

I have just spoken to a very intimidating EWO who has informed me that the process of deregistering is that I request it, get it granted for a couple of weeks where I'll have an inspector come and visit. He (yes she said 'he') will then write a report to the Chief Inspector, who will then visit within a couple of weeks after that and if they aren't happy then they will request my son returns to school .

If I refuse I am given 3 months notice to improve (ha!) and then will have to face a tribunal.

The first question I will ask said visiting Inspector should 'he' make any criticism was how many times he visited ds' placement when he was there and secondly what makes him qualified to assess the quality of education of a child with ASD in any case.

Sorry Skylar for hijacking. You're trying to get INTO school, I'm trying to get out..............lol

Pah - to the EWO. There's not a lot they can do to stop you bar generate oodles of paperwork.

I suspect the authorities can be much, much pushier about returning to school if a child needs 24/7 residential nursing style care.(Kiddy deaths never look good in the meeja). For kids like ours though, they just welcome the break from having to fund them for a few years but moan a lot for appearances sake.

My road would be easier if I didn't want to keep the option open for DS to return to the state sector at some point. It would also be easier if last year's events hadn't wrung out of me every last drop of patience I'd ever possessed. I just can't get my head into fluffy carrot collaborate mode.

…and the disbelieving of parents is endemic.

yes sorry skylar for hijack

Star, fingers crossed school stays positive. I personally don't see leaps in literacy and think he rote learns / recites much of it - but I have to accept enough other people see progress, my DS just functions so much higher in ABA conditions than out. His level of home functioning when structure is removed and distractions added is just much lower. But with the right conditions he can achieve.

We had a settling in review at new school and LA officer tried to swap in school TA for part of programme - which we resisted as it wasn't actually supposed to be an annual review - desperate to get the school to pay their £6k I think. The Head said to me after 'typical they see a child doing well and their first thought it to take provision away'. So I'm hopefully they get it (she has child with autism herself but he does ok in mainstream with less support, but is being supportive of our choice so far).

Its very weird having a team where everyone gets on and is working together and focussing on DS. Nice school, private ABA & 1;1, private SLT. Its a dream. Only taken 5 years to offload the dross but fully expect LA to try and dismantle it in autumn.

Problem for LA is that children as severe as DS usually don't get off p scales, certainly not in infants, so its very hard for them to take ABA away as he'd quickly go backwards / behaviour go down hill / couldn't match it - yet they can't send him to MLD school either as he's doing too well academically.

EP says he's exceeding expectations too. EP doesn't come often but at recent meeting was asking if ds could do basic stuff e.g. sit, pay attention, count to 10 and the teachers were 'oh yes he's doing division'.

Star you would swamp them with data!

'EP says he's exceeding expectations too. EP doesn't come often but at recent meeting was asking if ds could do basic stuff e.g. sit, pay attention, count to 10 and the teachers were 'oh yes he's doing division'.'

Whose expectations? Hers? FFS.

TBH Many schools are missing a trick refusing to support ABA as they get to 'keep' their £6k presumably?

But yes. I'd swamp them with data, and video evidence and presentation of SMART targets unlike anything he's had from his current school.

No problems for hijack it's all very educational for me.

Ds's proposed statement arrived on the mat today!

I was too wrung out at the start of this year to do more than sensible data tracking and targets, all of which tbh I don't think the LA are quite yet ready to see. (still getting their heads round the fact that previous LA were a bit woolly with his levels iykwim, history certainly seems to have been rewritten.) However, next term's monitoring session will be a tree hugger's nightmare . DS is calm enough now for me to spend the time with a clipboard or producing some nice graphs or to hide behind a camera etc.

They want to start from scratch again on the diagnosis front, but I'm not really sure what value that will add and am worried it'll just upset DS. I'd appreciate your thoughts?

There are some state schools and units incorporating positive behavior support into their specialist teaching units down here - generally they are far more clued up than the London mob were.

If they know what needs are then they don't need to know whats caused them boc, the diagnosis should be for your / his benefit surely?

Star I don't doubt your ds will jump several levels once you get started - I know your DS language is far ahead of my ds, the reason he's jumped 4 levels is not because he couldn't do it before but just it wasn't being taught in the way he learns. The NC levels are all a bit ridiculous for spiky profiles though, better to stick with SMART ABA ones on each objective really.

And the EP comment - don't know as it was said to Head and not me, he's nice bloke and while bit woolly has put his neck on line for DS's ABA a few times. I suspect he means much more progress than he has ever seen with a child as severe as ds. Kids like DS just don't achieve round here, I genuinely get the feeling people are seeing something they have never seen before. Which is of course why the LA fought so hard against ABA - the last thing they want is all the Head teachers and SENCOs to not only know the local provision is terrible (which largely they do and some admit to), its letting them know there is also an alternative. Worse than that its showing everyone the kids that failed before, didn't fail because their autism was too severe / they couldn't learn, but because of the provision.

And yes Star the school get to keep the £6k - they do provide 2 lunchtime covers and the Head is really good (much better last school) at covering and releasing the class teacher for meetings, ABA training etc and teachers have been to team meetings in ABA office. So they do use some sen money on ds but not £6k so def in their interests all round to have ABA.

How's the statement skylar?

Statement is rubbish agnes
And Ds's needs are all my fault including why he won't go to school on time. Hahaha. Have to laugh now but nearly cried yesterday in between the anger I felt.
School have also lied in their appendix.
Have been looking at a few new schools in the area I can't deal with these half wits anymore.

Well if any of that was true you wouldn't have a statement even a rubbish one. It feels so personal when you are going through it, especially the first time, but it's really about money not you. The way a parent explained it to me was that there are 10 families and 10 hurdles. At each hurdle one family will drop out, maybe only 1 family will keep going and clear all 10 and get what their child needs. The LA save paying for the other 9. Take a few days off and you will come back fighting harder. New school may be a good idea, we stuck with a rubbish one too long, it wasn't disastrous as we had ABA to pick up the slack, but in the end we moved for my mental health. I was sick of having to deal with useless people who made things harder and worse, not easier and better. When you get rid of people like that it does feel like a load has been lifted. It does hurt, we were accused of parental neglect of DS, bullying people into supporting us, being difficult and obstructive etc. Your evidence is at least as valid if not more than anyone else's. But you can do without people who try and make it about them, or you, to distract everyone from the child.

A change to part 4 might be in order Skylar, are there any likely candidates amongst the independent sector?

Egerton Rothesay?

Thank you agnes very good post.
boc yes they have asked me to name my preferred school in part 4. I don't think I can face the independant school place battle with the LA. There seems to be a good ms schools in area just outside where we live.star I loved ERS and they said they could take Ds but I am sceptical of placing him in a non ms school. The LA would never agree to it either. I'm considering between 3 schools, how wood and camp are amongst them.
Can I ask again? If the year group we want at a school is full do we have a chance of getting it, surely not if it is full. Do they make any allowances for statemented children. Plus I'm thinking the statement would have to be finalised beforehand and that could take forever if we end up having to go to tribunal.

If the year group is full but it is named in the statement then the school HAVE to accept you under exceptional circumstances. They do however, have to make a plan for the next academic year to ensure that no class goes above infant class size maximums.

This means that they pray someone leaves so they don't have to meet their ratio requirements by hiring another teacher.

The reality of this means that many schools will be reluctant to agree that they can meet the needs of a child that will put them over. Having said that, the schools in your LA will never get away with it as the LA will just tell them to get on with it if the parent doesn't take the hint and change their minds. Doesn't bear well for future relations if they are forced to against their will though.

Thanks again star the sencos/HT at the schools I am looking at are a complete different kettle of fish to what I am used to so I am sure we can have an honest conversation about the situation.
I don't want to seem weird but I have to say I only ever came to this Board because it was recommended to me when i first started to encounter difficulties with school last year and I was told to come to MN and look for your name. Best bit of advice I ever received I think, I have no idea who said it now I can't remember! You and so many other posters have been fabulous and so helpful. My Ds and I have a lot to thank you guys for

Lol, it's no secret that I post frequently about Herts. Not even to Herts.