My ds has finally got his statement!!

[macwoozy]

Can't believe it, we've finally got it. It took two years for the LEA to finally agree, but the relief I feel right now is huge. It couldn't come at a better time, he's moving up to Juniors to a new school in September and I feel so relieved that he's going to get the support he needs.

BUT...............10 hours, that's all they are giving him. Is this the bare minimum? How does that work? Will he have an LSA for just 2 hours? He needs 1:1 throughout the school day not just for a paltry 2 hours? I really don't want to contest this and wait a further 6 months before I get the final draft, as he needs support in place as soon as he attends his new school.

The bare minimum is 7.5 hours a week (plus any extra that the particular school may offer).

I can only go by my son's experience when he had 10 hours per week - he had support each morning (think the school were giving him an extra 5 hours on top of these 10).

If you want more hours you're going to have to contest this now; certainly not after the final draft has been issued.

IPSEA can certainly help in this regard, also you may want to contact SOS:SEN.

If he needs 1-1 then you HAVE to contest this. You don't have a choice. If you agree to ten hours, you will only ever get ten hours. The school should be able to give him ten hours without a statement.

When I say he needs 1:1 throughout the school day, I don't mean he needs to be shadowed IYKWIM but he does need constant encouragement/motivation for him to produce any work, he basically can't work independently. So I can't see how having an LSA just for a certain part of the day is going to work.
The educational provision states that he needs 1:1 to provide programmes to help with his social communication, social interaction and social understanding, where he will recieve 10 hours per week from the school and local authority budgets. Does this mean that the LEA won't even cough up for 10 hours without getting financial help from the school budget?

I think I will contact IPSEA, but I know I should be grateful that ds gets any support at all. I personally think that if he wasn't so disruptive within the classroom he wouldn't even have been considered for a statement. Makes me angry when I think of other children with HFA that don't create in the classroom but are silently suffering at school.I've just got to remind myself that ds is one of the fortunate ones in that he's getting at least some support and stop my whinging.

DS has a statement and like your ds macwoozy I'm sure he only got it because without support he is so disruptive in the classroom. I'm grateful that he has it but i know what you mean about the others who suffer in silence

DS has fulltime 1:1 at the moment and has done for the last 2 years. The LEA haven't tried to reduce it yet but no doubt they will soon. Fortunately our assessment officer hasn't bothered coming to any meetings about him for the last year so its been dwon to me and the school to decide what he needs and we say keep the same level of support I can't remember off the top of my head but I think the LEA fund 25 hours and the school is expected to fund the rest.

I know you don't want it to drag out any longer but the others are right. You need to contest the level of support now. Have you had a chance to have a chat with the SENCO from his new school to see if they agree with you?

It looks like I'm really going to have to looks hard into this, and I will, but I'm getting so tired that everything is such a battle. The euphoria I felt when the proposed statement landed on the doormat is quickly fading and now I fear that I'm going to have to summon the energy to fight this in order to get the support he's entitled to.

I feel that the proposed statement does identify ds's individual needs apart from playground assistance. A big part of ds's difficulties come from his social interaction difficulties, and when he's had a particularly bad playtime, this effects his behaviour for a good part of the school day, and without this supervision, his behaviour and anxiety will escalate BUT I've read enough of past threads to know that it's very difficult, if not impossible for a child with HFA to get support during playtime, so already I feel defeated.

Biggest concern is the length of time it's going to take if I do contest, it will mean that ds won't get any support in his new school for a good many months, and I really don't know how he'll cope, but I will look into it, and the SEN code of practise (I'm losing the will to live already with that one!!) and go from there.

My twins teacher laughed when i asked her about the extra funding the school should be getting to cover the cost of their extra needs. she said the school had pushed for the money on several previous occasions, for other kids. the prescence of statemented kids ment jack s**t, the LEA just turned round and said "sorry, no money left". (Sheffield LEA).

Its nice to know that kids with extra needs are so nicely supported in mainstream schools...yeah right.

.....continuing from my previous post.....they do get some extra help in school but this is entirely due to a teaching assistant who has to prioritise the twins and help them in a seperate room and thus not help in the classroom with all the class(which is her job). It totally isnt fair that the LEA hav this p**s off attitude. it has knock on effects on the other kids in the class. Theres no thought behind it.

Well this is another worry of mine,(dp says I'm not happy unless I'm worrying), perhaps mainstream isn't the right place for ds anymore. On the proposed statement, the LEA have allowed me to enter the name of the school that I feel ds should go to, and have included a list of S.N schools in the area. The EP also said that perhaps I should be looking at SN schools or attached units, but I really don't want to pull ds out of mainstream at the moment, I want to see how he gets on at the next school first, but I am aware that he's likely to be far better supported at a SN school. I agree Leilel with regards to effecting the other kids. With the amount of disruption my ds causes in the classroom, without support I know that his behaviour must effect the other childrens ability to concentrate.

Hi , Electra, thanks for the link. The case detailed in the link is kinda similar, except that my boys are already in a mainstream school. Theyre not being denied the mainstream ed, theyre just not getting the support they need in that situation. I dont want them to go to SN school, i think that their colourful characters add something to the school they are in, everyone knows them, and some kids hate them but other kids are drawn to them, they have made friends and their 'twin language' is broadening out so that it includes some English now.

And im afraid to say it but theres s stigma attached to SN schools (in this area at least), with mainstream kids around here using the "special needs, special needs" chants and taunts. I just dont want to put them through that. I am lucky to have a very proactive SENCo at the school they are in, and if there were any chance of getting Sheffield LEA to cough up the money for the SN kids at the school she have got it. They just maintain that they dont have any money left. If that is true it raises wider questions about education funding in general.