Another Tribunal question again

[adrianna22]

Hi.

DS 5, has ASD, severe speech and language difficulties and a private diagnoses of verbal dyspraxia.

As most of you know. I've put in an appeal and I'm nearing my tribunal date.

The questions is, I've found an independent special school that can meet DS needs and they have confirmed this.

I recently spoke to an advisor, told him my situation and the rest of it. He was worried as that as DS is so young ( his 5) how am I going to argue that an independent special school is the ONLY school that can meet his needs as well as arguing why his current mainstream school cannot need his needs as his only been there for two terms.

Sorry if it seems like I'm repeating the question. But when he mentioned that because of DS age it may be very difficult, including the independent experts, that the tribunal will not accept DS to go to the independent special school ( or to a specialist school) as they are risks of
misdiagnosis, young children presenting differently in other situations etc.

He strongly advised that I should allow DS to continue in his mainstream school for at least a year so that I'm able to get more profound evidence.

I understand what the advisor his saying. But I'm not willing to allow DS to stay another year at his mainstream school. But he did make me question my judgement. Though my chose to put DS into a specialist school wasn't taken lightly. I visited many special schools, including mainstream schools, asked them loads of questions. I guess for me it wasn't the choice of mainstream or special, it was more to do with what school can meet the needs that he requires and then I found this independent specialist school that I believe can meet his needs. I just had that feeling, that this was the school meant for DS and when viewing the school, speaking to the staff, looking at the therapies on offer. I just know that this school was the one.

But why can't DS SENCO, teachers and some advisors see that I just want the best for him.

This is so difficult.

Anyway, I'm going to see SOSSEN soon, will show them all of DS reports and see if we have a case.

If not, I could used the independent reports to tighten up DS statement.

I completely understand where you are coming from and speaking to sos sen is a very good idea as they will be able to advise you on the evidence that you have.

I have with my children ended up fighting when they were older and the mainstream placement had broken down so there was no other option for them so I cant really comment how a tribunal would view it.

I have heard of 5 year olds getting indie placements via tribunal. So I do know that tribunal can and do rule for young children.

However, a couple of things would concern me. First of all there's a very real risk that if yours is a rogue LA, then they might attempt to get him out at age 7 transition (KS1 to KS2 or infants to juniors). Secondly, sadly your advisor could be correct - as many have found on these boards (myself included), often tribunals will only rule if there is long-term evidence of failure in mainstream. It is an appalling state of affairs, but children very often have to fail severely before anything is done for them.

Your fight will be more that the mainstream school cannot met need rather then the indie ss can meet need. This is what you need to focus on - m/s school cannot meet the needs of your DS. If you can prove this via hard evidence from experts, then this will aid your case. I had to send an expert EP into the ms school to prove it couldn't meet my ds's needs.

Just re-read my post. The grammatical errors are atrocious! Forgive me, I was typing the post on my phone.

But thanks bjk and soonbe. Yes, I agree soonbe I need to prove that ms can't meet need. The educational psychologist would be assessing DS at school, as well as the OT.

• So I guess that's the reason why a few posters have said that a parent needs to get part 2 & 3 correct and the part 4 should follow after.

*... a parent needs to get parts 2 & 3 correct..

yes - that's how I won my indie school - I had to show the LA school could not meet his needs and that parts 2 and 3 were tight that a mainstream school would struggle to meet those needs. its not easy to do and is hard work but can be done as many on the board will tell you.

There is strong case law that each part has to be done in turn. That is, you have to do part 2, only then can you move on to parts 3. Once part 2 and part 3 are done, then you can move to part 4. This is case law.

Sadly most LAs (mine especially) do part 4 first, then fit up parts 2 & 3 to match.

But say like the LA turns around and suggests a specialist provision in my LA, what do I do then?

If you really don't think it can meet your DC's needs, then you had to prove it. It's exactly what happened in my DS's case, they offered a specialist provision in their LA but I proved it couldn't meet need (because it couldn't).

They were trying to put a square peg in a round hole (iyswim) - they tried to fit parts 2 & 3 (the square peg) to fit into part 4 (the round hole). It was a bit like them putting a hearing-impaired child into a school for the visually-impaired.

Is it worth getting independent experts??

...to come to the tribunal hearing I mean.

We were very fortunate in getting ds into an independent special school at the age of 4 (without tribunal) and others have joined his school since at a similar age. Not many, but I believe part of the reason for this is that most parents want to attempt mainstream first.

I swam against the tide by being laser focused on a particular indie school from shortly after diagnosis at age 2.

I think it can be more complicated if you start at mainstream as, like you said, tribunal might then expect you to have given it a reasonably long try before considering it to have failed. But it can be done, if you can produce good quality evidence of your son's needs then a) why mainstream is not meeting those and b) why the SS would. More than that sadly, you need to prove why the indie school is the ONLY one that can meet ds's needs.

A top notch private Ed Psych report is critical (beware they are often booked up for several months)...and he/ she needs to spend time assessing both schools.

Hope that helps!

It's not impossible to win.

In my limited honest option it's easier to get from a unit into indi. As in a unit dc has to intergrate with ms part of the day. If you can prove they can't integrate and therefore access the ms part you have a very strong case.

Of course people do win these things. It's never guaranteed so think about if you don't get what you want, could you accept a unit in ms? My la is mostly speech units in ms so when those placements fail a lot of parents I know end up in indi.

I wish my son had never gone into ms. I personally feel he shouldn't be there. I also feel that I need to prove his statement isn't working before I start down indi path. My ds is half his life delayed. I just found the tribunal process hard. I do feel now we had a very strong case, but that's no guarantee of anything

Also if your indi does a assesment day that's all good evidence