LEA are at it again

[jenk1]

Want to hear the latest in the Jenks continuing saga with the LEA?

"Unless you retract a piece of your parental evidence the statement cannot be issued"

The piece of evidence in question is a paragraph in which i stated that the LEA lady told me and DH and our private psych that unless there was an NHS dx they wouldnt accept our private psych,s dx.

So, i threw the book at her (the Special Ed Needs Act) and told her that LEA,s have to work with "other providers of support" ie our psych and that she was wrong.

Then when the minutes of the meeting came they also had in it about the LEA needing an NHS dx.

So she phoned me on Friday and told me to write her a letter saying that i retract my statement.

And guess what ive done

Written a letter to her boss telling her that under no circumstances am i retracting my evidence and that i cannot understand why they are refusing to send us the statement.

So ill sit and wait for either PP to contact me in a flap or for a snotty letter to arrive and in the meantime ill be advising IPSEA and our psych (he told me to do this anyway!!!!)

North west of the uk in a town that a famous 80.s/90s singer comes from.

She sang "all around the world", "All woman" and her initials are LS.

Thank goodness your psych has some sense!

Just got this reply today to my letter to the LEA

Dear Mr and Mrs Jenk
Re M

I write in response to your letter dated 04 December 2006.

The Local Authority asked you to consider amending your parental advice as both Mrs W (Education-officer-SEN) and other professionals had pointed out to me that the phrase in your advice "we were told by Mrs W that without an NHS diagnosis statements couldnt be written" was in fact an inaccurate interpretation of what was said in the meeting.

Mrs Whad pointed out that the Local Authority could not write a medical condition ie Aspergers Syndrome, into a Statement of Special Educational Needs without confirmation from an NHS practitioner. Dr F advice can be found as Appendix C2 to M,s Proposed Statement.

At no point during Mrs Ws telephone conversation with Ms Jenk on 1st December did she say that the proposed Statement would not be issued without the modification to your advice.

The Authority is not able to insist that Parental Advice is changed. I will, therefore, issue the Proposed Statement shortly.

yours sincerely

Im fuming [angry}
They have basically accused me of lying, i dont feel that i have a working relationship with this SEN lady anymore because she has twice lied and tried to put the blame on me.

At least you've stood your ground though and they have had to back down and agree that the statement will be issued shortly!

I can understand your anger, but don't let that cloud the fact that your ds is going to get so much more support now he's going to get that statement, it's what you fought for and you've done it, you've never backed down once, statements are like gold dust and you managed to get one with so many hurdles in your way.

Some LEA's (the one I reside in for instance) are very reluctant to issue statements even when there is clear evidence it is needed.

Socci - good luck with your appeal. Have you had any imput from IPSEA?. Certainly would agree that a poorly written statement is worth taking the LEA to task over.

((((((jenk))))))) I am so sorry to read al of this, I am hwever pleased you stood your ground and that they are issueing the proposed statement... I hope they have a decent level of support and targets for your boy.

I haven't been on much lately and when I have I've scanned titles as I've been terribly busy preparing for a statutory review for ds2... fingers crossed and preparign to fight the good fight if needs be.

Take care of yourself, and ds, dd and dh.

emma xx