Can my friend be made to move her child from his school?

[Distractable]

A friend of mine has a son in Year 7 who has learning difficulties and an EHCP. He was able to nominate the local secondary academy as his preferred school. They assessed him and accepted his application. He's working at a Year 3 level in maths, although struggling in English. His behaviour is good and he likes being with his friends.

The school has now said that they don't think they can actually meet his needs, and are putting pressure on his mum to move him to a special school. When she visited the local special school lessons were aimed at children with learning difficulties far more profound than her son's. The school told her that he would not be able to get GCSEs but she is not bothered about that. She wants him to be happy socially and to learn as much as he can.

What are her rights around this? Can she refuse to move him? What help should she expect in finding a school that can meet his educational needs?

Speaking from my experience when your governing body/Borough get involved as well as professional providers it can be very difficult to get a child moved. We had a boy in our secondary who only attended 3 subjects sometimes, refused to work in them and had zero chance of getting a GCSE (refused to write, read the texts for English and would only do 15 mins of lessons before leaving etc), socially he had no friends so could not argue that either however parents refused alternative provision and insisted that he stayed. And he did for for 4 years only leaving in year 11 when the school proved they could not meet his needs even with significant adaptions.

Another student had to leave as the school could evidence he was a risk to himself and others and could not be supported in mainstream.

May be similar in primary but basically so long as the school can meet his needs if they adapt enough then it will be hard to make her move him unless he poses a threat or danger to himself or others.

Some areas of the country may be tighter on this, others less so is the other consideration but from my experience the bar to insist a child is moved is very high and stating he will not got GCSEs is normally no where near enough as to be brutally honest not all children will and many of them do not have SEN/EHCP either.

Unless the school formally suspend/exclude DS, he can attend the school named in his EHCP. Following a review of the EHCP the LA could name a different school in the EHCP, but your friend would be able to appeal if it isn’t her preferred school. The school could raise concerns about being unable to meet DS’s needs, but they can still be named even if they object. Unless it would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, and no reasonable steps could be taken to avoid this, there is a right to a mainstream education (although not necessarily a right to a particular mainstream school). From your post, it doesn’t seem the LA could prove this, so any appeal would most likely be successful.

Has your friend looked at all special schools within travelling distance (normally 1hr15 is considered the maximum travel time for secondary) including out of area schools and independents? And considered EOTAS? As DS moves up through secondary and the gap between him and peers widens, it may become more difficult for him educationally and socially. Unfortunately, she shouldn’t rely on the school or LA for help to find an appropriate school. She should ask around locally, look at the local offer and can search for schools here. If she/you post on MN asking for ideas, someone may have suggestions.

My son seems very similar to your friends son. He is in year 6 with moderate learning disability and an ehcp. We looked at 2 special needs schools and our catchment secondary and we found similar to your friend. Most of the children in the special needs schools had severe/profound learning disability, autism or both. My son is plodding along, behind everyone else but he loves to learn, especially science and he wants to be with his friends. I have no experience of mainstream school wanting a child to move to special needs school but the LA will be keen to keep him in mainstream I would imagine as that is the cheapest option.