Statement Concerns/queries

[CinderEdna]

hi all,

I have a 3.5 yr old son diagnosed with ASD. he goes to a special school in the morning 5 days for 2.5 hrs and then attends a mainstream school. He also does 10 hrs a week of ABA that we fund privately. the special school submitted his request for statement and we have just received a letter to say its been approved and he will be assessed. i have been asked for my views.

my questions/concerns are:

• should i let the special school handle his statement or should i get involved?

• what should i be ideally asking for in terms of support?

• at some point i would liek to get some support for his ABA. however at this point i dont have enough evidence or data to help with this and therefore dont want to push it.

• Special school is keen that i send him to a school with Autism unit. however i think he is quite capable and can do well in small primary but with support. if i put special school down i wont get 121 support on statement?

• Should i get my own private Educational psychologist or use the one provided by the special school?

apologies for so many questions but i am really confused and dont want to make the wrong decision at this point that may affect his well being in the future.

appreciate your help.

Definitely get involved with the statement otherwise the LA will provide the bare minimum.

If you put ss then it's unlikely he will get 1 to 1 support as ss have smaller class sizes. Most LA's will be happy to place a child in ms with support as it's cheaper than ss. My son got full time 1 to 1 support without any fuss from the LA but I think I'm in a minority judging by what some parents have had to go through on here. Some LA's can be very difficult.

My letter of support for the statement was about 4 pages long. I put what DS's difficulties were in and out of school, what had been done to help, what had worked and what hadn't worked and what support I felt DS needed and why.

You might not need a private EP report, it depends on how good the ss EP is. Have you had any contact with them or reports from them before? The only thing I would worry about is whether their report might suggest ss if they are affiliated with the ss or the asd unit if ss are pushing for that. You need the EP to be on your side for the best results.

I can't help with ABA as I have no experience of it.

Thank u for this! I am making sure I get involved and have put down mainstream as a requirement. Fingers crossed now.