TRIBUNAL Tomorrow, please send me your good vibes

[jenk1]

this is our 4th one.

the past 3 times they have pulled out the day before, so they may do this today or they may not.

Good luck, Jenk!

How did it go?

not as well as we would have liked.

the lea did send the photos of dd, i said we asked for those not to be sent and she said yes i asked for them to be taken out, the panel said they didnt accept their late evidence as it could have been sent much earlier.

they did accept the ed psychs rushed report though, she gave it verbally which both us and our psych thought was wrong.

the lea sen manager ripped into our psych and the panel didnt stop her, he gave it back though.

the ed psych said she sees no signs of an asd and wasnt sure exactly what tests our psych had done, and the behavioural problems that dd has are not evident in nursery, so i asked to speak and said well just because they arent evident to dr XXXX doesnt mean that they are not there my son showed no evidence of an asd in school yet he was dx,d with ASD, she immediately said well it could be that dd is dx,d asd in 3/4 years time like i say all the dx,s are done by Dr XXXXX.

theres loads more but me head is spinning!

i dont kknow where i got the courage to say that to the ed psych, but we feel that the panel had already made their mind up and werent taking our points on board.

im exhausted, we were in there 2 hours.

Hi Jenk, we had a tribunal a couple of months ago and I felt exactly like you when we came out - like they had already made up their mind and weren't really listening to us, only to the LEA. It only occurred to me later that our evidence consisted of 300+ pages and the LEA's of 4 pages, so of course they had to make sure they got the information they needed from the LEA verbally at the hearing. Could that be the case for your hearing, too?

In the end, we got a compromise - not everything we wanted, but loads better than what we would have got without going to tribunal. All the best, and pour yourself a big glass of wine tonight!

the LEA,s bundle was probably double the size of ours, they did ask questions about provision dd had been receiving over the last 2 years and the senco spluttered and said "perhaps the parents" and the chair said well im asking you, she said well ive only been involved with her since she was 3 (lie she,s been involved with her since she was 18 months) and he said well you have all the documentation there, she spluttered again and said well the parents asked for her to be kept back in the baby room instead of moving up and i said ere no we didnt.

he asked her why dd had been spending more time in the education part and she proper struggled to tell him and said well its the headteachers decision and he said well u r the deputy head, so she said well we,ve had the builders in last week so i said no this has been going on since march.

he said do you not think that the parents should be advised what is happening and she said letters are going out this week.

she said she couldnt recommend any provision for dd for school and the ed psych said she wouldnt even "flag her up" as needing ANY support.

hopefully SENDIST panel will see the LEA and school for the incompetent fools they clearly are. One thing i do believe is SENDIST are able to see straight through an LEA who do not know their stuff and this is clearly the issue in your case. Fingers crossed for a positive result. The waiting now is the worst you have done the hardest part.

jenk1 I hope it all goes in your favour. I have all this pleasure to come. I received the final signed statement this morning and am already starting on my Appeal document. I know the sheer hard work and tears that you have gone through and I really, really wish you the best outcome you could wish for your DD.