Applying for a Statement of Educational Needs

[mrswelch2nd]

Hi, I have a 10 year old son who has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome / ASD.
Educationally he is behind but not a vast amount ( approx 2 years ), emotionally and socially he is way behind ( approx 4 years ). My son moves to Secondary school next September and heres where the problems start, school does not consider educationally he requires a statement of educational needs and would cope quite well at mainstream school with the support of a senco.
My son has endurred a vast amount of bullying in primary education because of his mannerisms and i know that he would not cope well in mainstream secondary.
His school do not seem to want to push for this on our behalf i believe they are blinkered to only the educational needs of my child and not his emotional needs and i am totally clueless as to where to start ourselves.
I would appreciatwe your guidance.

Hi. You can apply for an assessment of sen yourself! For some odd reason schools and the lea dont tell you this, and in MHO do tend to overlook the non academic needs! Look at the IPSEA and NAS websites. You will need evidence to go with/ follow your request letter and reports from professionals involved with your child(eg EdPsych, SALT PAED GP) so you may need to organise appts for the reports first. Good luck

mrswelch2nd

Think the school he is currently at is dead wrong and are being short sighted in their approach (also next Sept he will be at another school). Secondary School and AS are uneasy bedfellows.

Put in your request for a Statement to your LEA asap.

www.ipsea.org.uk is the website of IPSEA and they are very good at the minefield that is the statementing process. There are letters on there you can use. Be prepared though for the LEA to say no, you can appeal their decision.

You only need your letter to start with; if the LEA agree to assess (and that's one tricky bit of many) they will ask for reports from various specialists who have seen your son.

It can take six months for a statement to be set up so the sooner you start the process the better.