kids being forsed into main stream because of the closure of speacial schools

[lekki]

my daughter is being pushed into main stream schooling when it is plain to see she needs help from a special school, it makes me so cross. she cant walk, only has use of one hand, has no short term memory,speaks in jargon form, and finds it hard to understand everything. for starters its becoming a big problem to get her statemented due to lack of funds from the goverment, even when her consultant/brain surgeon says she must be fully statemented. its nearly cracking me up trying to get the right help for her.they are pushing chilren into mainstream because they want to close thespeacial schools down, although i cant see it ever happening, i believe my daughter will just go backwards if she doesnt get the help she needs and we all want the best for our kids wether theyve got added problems or not.

How old is your daughter Lekki? Certainly sounds like she should be statemented....

she is coming up for 3, but to get her having even part time help from our special school she must have a statement. and this has all got to happen before september so ive got abit of a fight on my hands, do u know anything about the closure of the speacial schools???

today was awful for me. i was pushed into starting my daughter at a "NORMAL" playgroup so today was our meeting with the hirered one to one, she was okay with her, , but my little girl is just so so different to the other children, to be honest i had to fight back the tears, she also has hydrcephalus and shunt which is potentially life threatening, so they have to be really careful with her, and im not sure i can trust someone with no experience, do u know what i mean

I understand it must be worrying for you Lekki. Is it possible for you to spend time with her and the support assistant until you feel confident she knows how to handle your dd?

What stage are you at with statementing? the LEA do have to stick to a set timeframe which I think would allow for a statement to be in place before Sept but I guess that does depend on what stage you are at and how much they contest it. What area of the country are you in?

i have possibly got the physio on our side now so if they decide to listen then the statement will get started. and i was just sitting here saying that i shall stay with her till im happy they are loking out for her properly, nothings ever easy is it, do u have a dd with disabilities??

Lekki, My understanding is that a special school you are normally statemented before you can go to a special school. I've not heard of this??

We have been told with our ds special schools you do have to be a statemented child. This doesn't seem right speak to IPSEA about this. Also speak to the new main stream school and express your concerns about how you feel they would not be able to cope and the fact there is no funding to support her. I don't think the school will too happy to accept under the circumstances.I would think they might support you here. larsxx

The statementing process and the application to special school are 2 dofferent proceses. It would be normal for a child gping to special school to have a statment, but alos normal for the statement not to be finalised until after starting at the school The application to special schools is co-ordinated by the ed psychs, so you need to talk to the ed psych. If you're not seeing one yet, then you need to talk to pre-school advisory (or local equivalent).

It sounds as if your dd is a good candidate for special school even in today's iinclusion climate. Stressing that you are concerned about her safety is a good idea. Also if shes not for example toilet trained then m/s schools often really struggle with that so you could request a special school with nappy changing facilities.

you really need to talk to an ed psych though.

My dd2 attends special school (pre-school part) without a statement. She is being reviewed by an ed psych with a view to getting the statement in place by the time she is school-age (this Sept). I'm not holding my breath. They don't do statements pre-school in this county anyway.

Unfortunately I think this is yet again one of these postcode lottery things. This sounds really tough for you - I hope you can get some more people on your side.

Thanks for all ur messages, she has funding for the playgroup shes starting, not statement though, want statement for sept. cant get into a special school Nursery around here without a statement, she saw a pycologist in jan and she put the statement process off,if u could see my dd youd take one look and think statement honestly. personally i think the goverment is just being tight and theyve all been told to intergrate as many speacial needs as possible into m/s, because of the closure of s/n. my dd will never come on if they dont give the correct help, ive got to try and calm down about it all abit,cause i had to have ecg today, cause my heart rate is too fast, they want to put me on pills for it. too stressful, need a holiday

Lekki, I can really understand how stressed you feel. Good luck and get some advice from IPSEA as you need to get this sorted as quickly as possible. Try to calm down and relax although I know it's difficult. larsxx