School lying about my child for an EHCP

[Kirxxx]

I’m looking for advice
My son is 4 (summer born) and has started school in September.
He is speech and language delayed due to a severe tongue tie and is frustrated - he has speech but struggles to put more than 6 words together and only does this selectively. This is confirmed by the speech therapist he is currently working with. He can have meltdowns when he’s upset or frustrated or being told no but again the speech therapist said this is due to lack of speech.
The senco and headmaster want me to apply for an EHCP which I don’t want to do. He doesn’t need one - he needs more time to develop than other children. They want the funding and think they can get it. They’ve handed me a form that states my child has no use of functional language and can’t even communicate with appropriate gestures. Obviously this is categorically untrue and I have various evidence in the form of professional reports - videos provided my the school of him singing and counting etc. And we’ll basically him if he feels like talking that day!!
They’ve also put his school level at 16-22 months for reading writing and maths which again isn’t true. He’s mastered all of 30-50 months and he’s only 55 months. So he’s behind but not EHCP and ed psych behind.
I don’t know where to go from here. I have complained to the head about the senco who backed her up saying that they need the funding. How can it possibly be legal to lie about a 4 year old??!? He soes need extra support and his speech IS delayed but I feel this is extreme and like I am being bullied into pushing something I don’t feel is right for my child. He’s only been at school a few months and speech therapy is only in its second week so it’s not even as if they have tried everything
Any advice would be gratefully appreciated

I really would go along with the school here - if he's struggling with social communication now to the extent he has a 1:1, he may need more as he gets older and other children are chatting at an increasingly higher level. Or not.

But it can take years to get a EHCP in place, and there's no downside to him getting extra support - when he's a teenager, no-one's going to care if he had a TA in Y1 or not! The process involves multiple assessments, which will give you and the school more information about what he can and can't do (being able to do stuff at home but not in a school environment is a need in itself!).

Usually thread titles like yours are the other way round, when schools hope a kid will go away if they don't support them and claim they're fine - a school being proactive in case your son needs further support in future, so that they have a better chance of being able to provide such support, sounds really good.

Obviously everyone hopes that once his age difference is proportionally smaller he'll be fine, but it would be daft not to prepare just in case. Think of the EHCP process as an insurance policy.

I dont understand why you dont want the school to ask for his needs to be assessed by some professionals so they can properly support them. Im a bit confused. I get that he will hopefully catch up very soon but perhaps he can catch up even sooner with more help. I can only see it as a good thing.

Most schools including my son and nephews' are v reluctant to apply for an EHC assessment. Getting the LA to agree to assess is only the first step and they may well refuse. I struggle to understand why you think your son getting additional support is a bad thing. As others have said if he catches up and no longer needs additional support the LA would be falling over themselves to cease the plan.

Agree with what everyone else is saying. If school think an EHC Needs assessment is warranted you should go along with it. They must think he needs more support than they can provide if they are suggesting this.

This is definitely not something schools normally do. 9 times out of 10 it is parents asking for EHCN assessments and school saying it isn't needed.

Early support is crucial. My second son had a speech and language disorder and he had a statement of SEN (now EHCP) when he was 4. He had TA support in the classroom and intensive SLT. By the time he was 7 he had caught up and his statement was rescinded as he no longer needed support.

School are not lying about your child.
Your child may present differently at school.
Speech and language therapists are a mixed bag. With mine telling me my child wouldn't be able to access the school curriculum and have friends.... 6 months later and well let's just say, my child has squashed all those 'observations' and is flying. I cried for 2 days, decided to be proactive, get an assessment with the paed and pay for private speech and language. We work hard with our DC to help the additional needs and now it is being observed as a maturity thing that my DC will grow out of. BUT we worked with the school and other agencies as early intervention is key.

In my work, I have had to contribute to ehcp for a child I worked with to ensure the support was given for them. It is a lengthy process that requires a minimum of 6 months of evidence and lots of reports from other professionals. The school also have to pay the first £6000 of the funding. There was also no guarantees that the child in question would be granted one.

Please work with the school and take on board their advice. Let your child prove them wrong if that's how you feel. But there is no stigma and it is hugely helpful for everyone involved to have additional support if that's what the LA deem your child needs. Don't focus on the eyfs milestones but the progress your child is making in comparison to themselves. An ehcp will only enhance that progress.

Good luck OP. It is a worrying time. I've been there and cried rivers. But I am now in limbo waiting to see if my child grows out of it or presents differently as they get older. Therefore potentially missing early intervention

I’ll add to that about speech therapists. Both NHS one was nice, really nice but didn’t have a clue at all. Wasn’t interested in us starting pecs or anything like that. Next one was brilliant. Really understanding about kids with needs rather than just a really generic therapist so it really is a mixed bag. On the whole schools don’t want to apply for an ehcp as it is a lot of work and they do have to show that they’ve supported the child first and that they will additional funding.

I'm not really surprised that your SENCO and headteacher are lying about your child, as I've come across this sort of thing myself while working in a school's SEN department. I am, however, astonished by the responses on this thread, which all seem to say either that you should go along with their deception, or that the school isn't lying - you are!
I don't see any reason to doubt the truth of your account, and I don't think you should accept their lies. If you don't want to apply for an EHCP assessment now, you can still do so at a later stage if needed. And if you do decide to proceed, you can do so without resorting to lies.

@Brokenness that’s interesting. What reasons do schools lie about children and go for ehcps? I thought it was a lot of work.

They may believe that the child will benefit from the additional help that will come with an EHCP, but that they won't get it without exaggerating their needs. They may also expect that the additional funding will help the school as whole, either because additional help for the statemented child frees up resources (e.g. teacher time) for other children, or because the funding actually gets used in other ways.