Changing school with EHCP - visual inpairment

[doingwhatican]

Hi,

Has anyone experience of changing schools with an EHCP? We’re planjing to move between london boroughs next summer. Current school is excellent but I’m spending 2 1/2 hours a day on commuting and it’s too much.

Our son is severely visually impaired so we’d need the new school to have teachers and plans in place. Plus he would need to continue his Braille, get a tour of the school before the other kids start. His EHCP entitles him to a full time TA.

Can we contact the council and exercise our school choice? How do you sort the transition? At what point does one do this? Do we have to physically have moved or can we have exchanged contracts?

Thanks so much.

Isn't your son entitled to free home to school transport?

When you move to a new area, the file should be transferred to the new authority who have to make a decision whether they are going to adopt the EHCP as it is or review it with a view to amending it. If they do amend it, they will send you a draft with section I blank and invite you to let them know your preference in terms of schools. If you are still some way away from the current school, it's likely that they will want to amend so as to avoid liability for providing school transport.

If for any reason that doesn't happen, you could ask for an early review and use that to ask for the placement to be changed. If they refuse, you would have a right of appeal.