School Choices whilst going through the statement process

[runikka]

Good evening

I dont know if anyone can advise me. We have recently had to select 3 schools for Daniel for Sept 2009. At the moment he attends a special school nursery on an outreach placement and the statement process has just started. The school are keen for him to say and we are definitely hoping he can continue.

So, we put the school he attends now first, followed by another special school in the area and then finally the local mainstream.

We received the letter back and he has been allocated the local mainstream We know that until the statement process has been finished, we wont know if he can attend the special school but we have written stating our preferences separately and asked for the statement process to be started last June (it was started late January)but feel it has been ignored. I dont know whether we should now be appealing the school allocation or waiting until the decision has been made on a statement. He is non-verbal, non-toilet training, severe food issues and autistic.

Would you wait and see or stress again where we really would like him to attend? Would you speak to the special school to see if they can express any interest in him being on their register?

many thanks

HI Runnika you rDS sounds like mine- we are going through the same thing at the moment. Ds is in an ASD nursery which needs a statement to get a school place. We are at the stage of statementing where all the professionals are getting their reports in. We also had a huge delay in the statementing process but on the behalf of

Anyway, as I understand it if the special schools needs statements then he wont be allocated a place until your DS's statement is done so Im not sure what you can do until then. I am finding the whole process really confusing so I may be wrong.

If the process in my LEA is same as in yours - unit/special school admissions operate to a completely different timetable to the m/s admissions - and you can't apply directly for the unit or special school place. The places outside m/s seem to be allocated by a pre-school panel once the various medical and ed psych reports are in. which of course doesn't coincide with the early deadline for the m/s applications... speak to the special school again to find out more about how they usually get their pupils, and how soon before the school year starts that the places get confirmed. also worth speaking to early years/inclusion at council, in case you speak to someone helpful.