possible illegal exclusions

[xenzani]

Long story short, would being sent home to 'calm down' before going back to school for the afternoon session or the next day if it happens in the afternoon be classed as an illegal exclusion?

Dd2s school are wanting to do the above when she is in destructive mode and either about to hurt someone or already has hurt someone, thrown things or running about the school. I understand that she can't be at school but feel that they should be doing more to help prevent it getting to that point.

SA refused but have put in for tribunal, although the senco says that she won't get a statement as she is making some progress, doesnt have a diagnosis, learning disability and they don't give them for behaviour. She didn't like that I told her that they can be. This is also her first real dealings with dd2 as senco was off sick when things got really bad after easter last year.

xenzani, when did you send off your tribunal appeal, and were you able to lodge with it a copy of whatever the school say they sent to the council? That might wake them up a bit. Would the school be prepared to pester the council again?

Appeal was sent off last week before school went back. I did include a letter with my request, and the tribunal forms, that the school made about dd and her behaviour in school.

Senco who was off sick when I made the request is not supportive of SA in dds case, only one who was, was the head. Deputy who was temporarily the point of contact while senco was off, wasn't supportive until the head agreed with me that it was worth a try. School are pretty adamant they can cope...

Yes, in our experience it did. Infact, we did it twice with good outcomes both times.

On the first occasion ds2 was putting himself (and the rest of the family/school in danger) and we basically wrote to give her the facts of what was happening (or not happening) so she could not claim ignorance. A meeting of all concerned was called within 48 hours and we got respite within a week.

On the second occasion we wrote to complain that ds2 had not been given a secondary school (they had missed the legal deadline) AND was receiving only part-time education AND they were failing to fulfil his statement (difficult if a child is not in school). On this occasion we gave them deadlines. He was placed in a specialist school within 6 weeks.

It is not acceptable that school did not supply the information they have a duty to do so.
It is not acceptable that statutory assessment is refused on the basis of lack of information from the school. The SEN team should have either made greater effort to get the information from school or granted the SA. They have a duty to do so,
It is not acceptable that the LEA is failing to provide your daughter with a full time education to which she is legally entitled.

Make it clear what you want them to do to put it right e.g. statutory assessment started by the end of the month.

Make it clear that you know the next steps if your complaint is not answered to your satisfaction you will go to the local government ombudsman.

And now I must go and persuade ds2 to have the first drink of the day - I may be gone a long time ......

Coolas, we ended up on four last week and a part time timetable for the this week, and then full days Tuesday's for a couple of weeks to see how that goes. Apparently, seeing as dd was sent home that many times, if I didn't agree to the half days, she would have ended up being permanently excluded.

No school can possibly claim to be able to cope if it's using illegal exclusions.

The LA will come to the school when preparing the response to the appeal. If they are still claiming to be able to cope, you're going to need to force their hand by (a) keeping a complete record of all the part time timetables, illegal exclusions, and other communications from the school and filing them with the tribunal and (b) refusing to accept unofficial exclusions. If the school starts talking about permanent exclusions, they cannot possibly claim that they are able to meet her needs.