School asking me at least once a week to collect early or come in to check on DS1 because they are worried about him

[hanbee]

Can I ask in what cases school asks you to collect your child? My son is in an Area Resource Base, a SN class within a mainstream primary with a specialist teacher and 3 TAs. He has hypotonic cerebral palsy and is 6.

Recently school are ringing me at least once a week to ask me to either collect him or pop in to check on him, because they are concerned about him. He is not ill but they describe him as wobblier than usual and having had a couple of absences. He does occasionally have absence seizures.

School is a 45 minute drive from home and I have his younger brother to collect from our local primary so collecting DS1 is not a simple, quick or indeed cheap matter involving a lot of miles and paying for after school club for my other child. I'm starting to feel that they are being well over the top in their concern for him and as if they want him our of the class for some other reason and that they think I am able to drop everything else to collect him for the slightest reason.

In what situations does your child's school ask you to take them home? Am I being a poor parent by refusing to collect him if he's not actually unwell in any way?

Yes, unless they are saying he is unwell you are perfectly within your rights to refuse to collect.

I would suggest that, unless they've done this already, you ask for an urgent meeting with the medical professionals dealing with your son in order to draw up a health protocol which, amongst other things, should set out exactly what the school should be doing in the event of absence seizures.

Also, if the school is 45 minutes away you must be entitled to home to school transport. Have you looked into that? I suspect that if they know he normally goes home by bus or taxi they might be less keen to get him taken home.

have a look at this thread on the same board
Calls to collect DS during the school day. What if I say 'no'? (23 Posts)

It is a bit different, but might help.

And if ds is not unwelll, then if you do not pick him up you are being a GOOD parent by making the system give him his right to a full time education that meets his needs

Thanks. You've confirmed my gut instinct is right. He does have school transport, a minibus that is shared with 4 other children.

It's difficult as at present his absences have been observed by professionals buy never caught on an EEG so he doesn't have an official epilepsy diagnosis.

I agree with Ici, he needs a care plan/protocol in school. It's usually the school nurse that draws up the care plans and puts it in place. The care plan would set out the circumstances in which school need to call you if he is 'not right' after his absences. It sounds like they might need some advice or training on how to deal with his absences and what to look out for.