EHCP school change

[fizzypop1]

Hello - my DS is moving into year 3 at a mainstream primary school. We secured an EHCP at the end of July and the final was issued following negotiation with the la. They did agree to a lot of the amendments that we included and Sossen were really helpful inmarking up the draft. I applied for the EHCP myself although school have been supportive throughout. My concern is that school tend to make out that everything is fine and that he is at the levels that he needs to be at. He is having some outside school tutoring and his tutor thinks that he would actually be more suited to a specialist school rather than mainstream and has recommended an independent school that we cannot afford. At the moment we are happy for him to continue at his mainstream primary school and see how he progresses with the EHCP but just wondered how we would go about requesting a change of setting if things do not improve particularly as we head towards secondary school. Does anyone have any experience of this? Many thanks in advance.

No experience but we are in a nearly similar position. The only difference is that no one has suggested a specialist setting. I think you have to give the current school and the new EHCP a chance before looking at an interesting indie.

During your EHCP what did the EP report say? I suppose you have to make sure that the school put the Plan support in place and you will have to keep an eye on how its success is being appraised.

Somehow you need to keep track of school meetings and your son's behaviour. If it is working well then the support is presumably working. If it is not working then school will presumably report poor behaviour. You might see difficult behaviour too. If so that suggests unmet needs and that the proposed provision isn't working. If it's not ok then you can call an emergency 6 month review. That has a right to appeal if you are not happy with the amendments.

Looking ahead if you do have a specialist indie placement in my be you will need to build your evidence base over the coming years. You'll need to show your DS' needs can't be met in the state provision. That could be tough but it's not impossible. A friend of mine did it.

In general I'd be looking ahead to see what secondary options are for your DS. You will be able to pick a school based on provision and ignore distance rules. That might make things look a lot better. Make sure you choose an autism friendly environment - it's got to be all teachers buying in and not just the SENCO. Good luck

The Senco called an 'emergency' annual review in view of DS's recent autism diagnosis. I was planning on doing this myself but was just waiting until I had managed to visit all the specialist schools I was interested in. At the annual review itself the LA ed psych was the lone voice saying he should stay put in mainstream. If the school is not saying he should go then I think it would be harder (but definitely not impossible) to get the LA to concede that he needs specialist provision. Once they concede he needs specialist provision you have to let them see if they have any state provision. When they didn't have any 'in county' state vacancies, they then looked at whether they could find any 'out of county' state provision. It was only when they drew a blank there that they made the referral for assessment at my preferred school, which offered him a place. Just when everything was looking settled the LA managed to dredge up a place at another independent autism school. Even though it was only marginally cheaper and nearer LA wouldn't budge until I got legal representation. Mercifully it didn't take very long (or very much money) until they agreed my preferred school. It's a very tricky and individual decision but it can't hurt for you to visit the school you were recommended and any other possibles.

Thanks - I will be monitoring the provision recommended in the EHCP at school as closely as I can but it is difficult to be sure that everything is in fact being provided as DS never talks about school.

It is unlikely that we will be able to track by behaviour as DS is not actually disruptive at school at all just very quiet and does not communicate with peers and teachers so actually probably spends a lot of time at school quietly not understanding anything but because he is not disruptive school just say he is coping ok. The la report was very much mainstream all the way as were the la speech and language but our private salt and private EP both said that he needed specialist teaching to meet his needs as does his tutor.

This was a major factor in my decision to go; you can jump up and down all you like saying what you want the teachers to do but at the end of the day they're there and you're not.
I have that a bit with my DD. No one ever called DS a 'happy and engaged learner' or a 'delight to teach' yet the meat of their reports is eerily similar; all checks firmly in 'developing towards' category. Of course I'm relieved that behaviourally school isn't the same car crash for her as it is for him but it does make it hard to get input from the school as to a possible problem. Beware the thing that happened to a couple of people I know; the school claim everything is fine or at least being dealt with fine and only in year 5/6 spring it on the parent that mainstream secondary is not going to be a goer. It's good that you have the tutor who is not going to have an agenda so will provide an unbiased opinion.

You would either need to wait for annual review or call an emergency review and request change of placement.

It would have to be proved, with significant evidence, that the current setting, even with additional resources, could no longer meet the needs set out in the EHCP.

Keep a close eye on his progress - both academic and in other respects, including social - and if he doesn't appear to be making progress raise the question of whether the school is able to meet his needs at the annual review.