School not letting DS out at playtime.

[sarah573]

DS (9) has AS/HFA. He has had lots of problems at school. He will be leaving mainstream in September to go to a new unit locally which is opening for HFA kids. The problem is that leaves him at his current mainstream until July.

ATM he's having a fairly good patch, and has managed 2 weeks at school without incident. He's only in school for 3 hours aday and has 1:1 support.

The problem is since returning from the easter holidays school are refusing to let him go out at playtime. He's really upset about this as he feels he's being punished when he hasn't done anything to deserve it. I agree with him, if he does something to deserve staying in then he should stay in, but just to keep him in regardless of his behaviour IMO is wrong.

School say they have risk assessed him, and have decided he must stay indoors. He has hit/kicked other children in the past, but not recently, and there are other children in ths school who have hit/kicked before and are not being denied their breaktime. He also had his 1:1 support on the playground so he is supervised. He has a real sense of order and routine and of fairness, and distrupting him like this is really causing him stress.

I approached the SENCO and HT, both of whom will not budge. Although the HT is a nightmare - overall the school have been very good with him so far.

I then wrote to the gouvenours saying I believed school were discriminating against DS by denying him his breaktime. The response was completely unsatisfactory, and completely skirted around the issue. He said that they could not possibly be discriminating as DS doesn't yet have an official DX (the fact the ed pshcy, pead and CAMHS have all said its HFA - and he's being moved to a special school for HFA - and his statement says pending his DX he should be treated as a child with HFA obviously isn't enough for them!).

Sorry for rambling, but my question is what do I do now? XDH wants to get legal advice. I've got a good relationship with the school and want to keep it that way, but also don't want DS to suffer.

I think there is a lot wrong here. Your ds is only in school for 3 hours a day, what about his right to a full education? What happens for the rest of the day, does he get home tuition? Your ds IS being discriminated against and I would, if it were me, be taking legal advice on this. I have a ds who has AS and he had a 1:1 including playtimes. I believe your school is acting illegally. Have you contacted your LEA and got their views? Make sure you write to them and record every telephone conversation or conversation at school and follow that up in writing. Schools HATE things in writing especially when they know they are in the wrong. Provision should be made for your child.

If CAMHS say it's HFA, that is a dx of HFA! And any disability discrimination tribunal would say that it IS disability discrimination because they have 'reason to believe' that there is a disability.

My son is v v violent and still gets his breaktimes. Yes, they had to risk assess, but his TA is always there and there is a system in place if he kicks off that a child is sent in to get reinforcements if J needs restraining/ taking inside and they need more than one adult to do it.

Ring IPSEA. They are great. It is disability discrimination - they're not making reasonable adjustments and they are treating him less favourably than a child without his disability. Write to them again and make it clear that you will appeal to SENDIST for disability discrimination if they do not come to some sort of arrangement with you.

Poor him (and you!)

If CAMHS has made such a diagnosis the school should accept it without question.

Your son's current school is on very shaky ground here and this could be seen as discriminatory; do call IPSEA or SOS;SEN. They will be able to advise you further. Also the NAS (National Autistic Society) should be able to give you pointers.

The NAS has a helpline - advocacy for education service 0845 070 4002 which may be able to advise. (You leave your number and a brief message and they ring you back in a couple of days).
Hope you get some resolution quickly.

The definition of a disabled person according to the DDA is:

"someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities"

Given that your ds is unable to attend school for more than 3hrs a day and has to have 1:1 support, I don't see how the school can possibly say that your ds doesn't meet the criteria. There is no requirement for the person to have a formal dx.

I'd be tempted to give the school a copy of the relevant parts of the DDA and advise them that you will be contacting the LEA if the discrimination does not stop.

Schools may try to get out of their obligations, but that is no reason for letting them break the law; you put pressure on. We put up with some absolutely ghastly discrimination of dd because we thought something dreadful would happen if we threatened to sue. Nothing ghastly happened, the school has now backed down on all issues.

Our dd was not statemented, and is not registered as disabled, but, like your ds, it is absolutely clear that she is covered by the act. Spelling this out to them made a big difference.