Stat assessment refused, WETAUGUST, STAR and anyone else help me please

[claw3]

Received SA decision not necessary at this time.

I am in shock at what school have written in the form they have sent them.

Please tick areas of special educational need.

All they have ticked is speech difficult and next to Autism box they have written in capital letters NOT YET DIAGNOSED!

'Ds is making adequate progress both academically and socially and SA is not required. The school is employing numerous measures as stated in ds's IEP. Taking advice from outside agencies.

Teachers report (all the bad bits) In class ds needs frequent support to complete his work. He is slow with writing generally. He lacks motivation and is over reliant on adult support. He needs frequent reminders to keep him on task. At times he disregards instructions from support staff. He sulks/cries and takes himself to the back of the carpet when reprimanded.

Support/resources deployed to enable ds to access curriculum.

1:1 SALT twice a week.
Timetable of the day on his desk
Group TA support when necessry
Often has adult support on his table to assist him with his work.

The school then go on trying to portray me as a precious complaining mother and have even included an up dated IEP dated Feb which i havent even seen! Also state I requested an OT report be shredded (OT manager made this request, not me)

I know i need to appeal this decision, but what grounds do i appeal on?

Only wants to speak to you once every half term?!!!
You need a change of school. Find out from other people locally which schools are good for SEN. Even if she feels like that it is very unprofessional to say it.

Wassup, yes i have copies of everything. I have a downloaded copy of the SEN COP, its a long document isnt it! I have started to read through and scribble down any relevant clauses. Thanks for that it has saved me some time.

imahappy Have ds's name down at another school with an ASD unit attached to it. Just need dx and statement for him to access the unit (this would also shorten the waiting list for him), but have his name down for the main stream school anyhow.

Star they have provided a record of calls, meetings and letters from me.

12.11.08 i telephoned school to speak to SENCO prior to ds starting school. this is the only recorded phone call

7.9.09 I wrote a note to class teacher first day of going up into year 1 to inform her of his toilet needs and enclosed clean trousers and wet wipes.

22.9.09 Wrote to class teacher to express my concerns of ds being constantly hit by other children since 7.9.09.

28.0.09 Didnt receive a reply and further incidents of ds being hit so wrote again.

28.9.09 wrote to SENCO giving a list of dates of incidents and asked for a meeting.

30.9.09 had my first EVER meeting with SENCO.

2.10.09 Sent copy of paed report

13.10.09 wrote to SENCO when ds was sent to the head teacher for using his 'overwhelmed' card.

14.10.09 meeting with SENCO to discuss why ds was sent to head teacher.

9.11.09 Wrote to SENCO after she 'was too busy to speak to me on the phone when IEP was sent home in ds's book bag asking for amendments to IEP

24.11.09 Wrote to SENCO again and she didnt reply.

9.12.09 Wrote to SENCO after she 'was too busy to speak to me' informing her ds had been released from hospital.

14.1.09 wrote to SENCO to inform her that after speaking to NAS ds could NOW be referred to ASD Outreach.

1.2.09 MD meeting.

3 meetings in over a year, a meeting once a term would be a improvement,

Stick to what you belief in! I have one child on the first centile for dyspraxia and being assessed for ASD which the LEA have refused to assess-so I am off to tribunal in April. The LEA have slowly backed down a little at first allowing a ASD specialist teacher to go in and then just last week allowing an EP to assess.
They agreed to assess another of my children with selective mutism, dyscalculia on the first centile and a possible non verbal learning difficulty (similar to ASD in many ways)and the result has been overdue for a while now, if I don't get it this week I am going to look into judicial review.
The reason the LEA refused to assess my son first of all was because they said his difficulties were only mild with dyspraxia and they could meet his needs. I was still on the list for an NHS OT-I called them up to see how much longer I needed to wait. They said staff had left and were not being replaced so they could not tell me how much longer I would wait. So my local news were interested in this and I ended up on live radio then on the local TV news. A private OT came forward and was very experienced and had trained the counties specialist teachers who assessed my son and did a report.
Her report is excellent and is now in the hands of the LEA-so fingers crossed. I also got a private SaLT to assess my childs pragmatic profile which is immature and quirky.
Good Luck with it!!

Right very rough draft of letter to LEA to give them the chance to reconsider.

Your comments please, i have just written everything down what should i use?

I am disappointed that they failed to contact the professionals whose reports i provided as I consider without their views you have made an uninformed decision.

I do not agree with the decision because the reports and info I enclosed have identified difficulties that appear to have been ignored / overlooked by school and require a level of specific support in excess of that which is currently being provided.

My son has difficulties which are not adequately supported and how can the extent of those difficulties or the support required be known until a full SA is undertaken.

The school have refused to acknowledge that their 3 card system and visual timetable have failed and continue to set the use of these as targets, despite the fact that ds has not used these stratgeries since October 2009 which they confirmed to me during a meeting in February 2009.

Without these statergies in place ds has no help or support for his self care, emotional or social needs.

The help and support received by ds in school continues to be aimed at academics, in response to social, sensory, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Furthermore low academic targets were set, despite ds being identified as a ?gift learner? and having advanced reading and spelling skills, by EP in December 2009. I think this sums up the schools total lack of understanding of ds's needs.

The school are relying on outside agencies to identify ds?s needs and provide stratergies, but then fail to follow their recommendations.

The school are failing to identify what the adults responsibility is in ds's care and refuse to identify what help should be given, how often help will be given, who will give the help, how progress will be monitored or set targets.

I am lodging an appeal with SENDIST at your refusal to assess and I would you to provide me with the following information as required under the Education (SEN) (provisions of information by LEA?s) (England) regulations 2001.

? Details of help you expect local schools to provide for children at school action plus with my childs special needs?

Anxiety
Phobias
Delay in play skills
Speech and communication difficulties
Feeding difficulties
Social and interaction skills difficulties
Sensory dysfunction
Soiling
Self harming behaviour

? Details of the criteria you use to decide when to make a Statotory Assessment of children with my childs special needs?

Hi claw

Good letter.

Suggestions:

I am writing to you following your decision to refuse my request for a SA.

I am disappointed that in making that decision you failed to contact the professionals whose reports I provided with my inital request. I consider without their input you have made an uninformed decision.

Those reports identified difficulties that are not currently adequately supported and require specific support.

However, the true extent of those difficulties or the support required be known until a full SA is undertaken.

The school have refused to acknowledge that their 3 card system and visual timetable have failed. It continues to set the use of these as targets, despite the fact that ds has not used these stratgeries since October 2009;something school confirmed to me during a meeting in February 2009.

Without these statergies in place ds has no help or support for his self care, emotional or social needs.

The help and support received by ds in school continues to be aimed at academic achievement rather than in response to his social, sensory, emotional or behavioural difficulties. I think this sums up the schools total lack of understanding of ds's needs.

The school has also failed to implement the strategies recommended by outside Agengies.

As a result, school are failing to identify what the adults responsibility is in ds's care and refusing to identify what help should be given, how often help will be given, who will give the help, or how progress will be monitored or set targets.

This is not acceptable.

I am lodging an appeal with SENDIST at your refusal to assess.

I woam requesting that you provide me with the following information as required under the Education (SEN) (provisions of information by LEA?s) (England) regulations 2001.

? Details of help you expect local schools to provide for children at school action plus with my childs special needs?

Anxiety
Phobias
Delay in play skills
Speech and communication difficulties
Feeding difficulties
Social and interaction skills difficulties
Sensory dysfunction
Soiling
Self harming behaviour

? Details of the criteria you use to decide when to make a Statotory Assessment of children with my childs special needs?

Just suggestions

I removed the bit about gifted learner. That just mudies the water as with the right support he will be a gifted learner

Best wishes

Thanks Wetaugust, you have a way with words

Do you think i should include this email with the letter, i sent it to the ds's OT today too?

Dear OT manager,

I applied to the LEA for a Statutory assessment in school, as im sure you are aware part of this process is for the school to provide details of known problems and exact details of strategies they have put in place and are using.

• The school have listed ds's only problem as speech and language difficulties. Can you confirm that the school are aware that Jacob has sensory needs?

• None of the strategies you recommended in your email or since OT's visit have been mentioned in the details the school supplied. Although they do mention OT's visit and comment 'OT reported that ds appeared happy and settled and displayed no anxiety, nor any anxious behaviours. He was also seen to eat a raw carrot'

During the meeting you attended at my house you commented that the school had told you they were following all recommendations made by OT. You also emailed the school some strategies. Also OT phoned me after her visit to the school and told me the school had put some OT strategies in place. Could you please clarify?

• The school also state that 'after final OT report was received, Ms Claw3 requested that it be shredded' I find this statement very misleading and I would appreciate it if you could confirm that i did not request that the school shred the report, i assume you did?

I would also like to inform you that ds continues to report above average incidents of being 'hit' or 'hurt' by other children at playtime. The school are not aware of this as i was instructed not to contact them, they only want to speak to me once a term about my concerns.

OT explained this previous to both the school and I in September 'Ds could 'feel' like this was happening because of his sensory problems'. Ds has made comments after reporting these 'incidents' to me recently that 'the world is horrible, i wish i wasnt in it' and 'i want to go to bed and never wake up'. The school appear to be claiming that ds does not have any sensory needs and these incidents therefore cannot be explained away as being ds's responsibility. Either way this needs to be addressed.

Did you get any standardized scores from the OT and if so what where they?

Hi Claw

No - I wouldn't enclose a copy of the email you sent to the OT.

It's a good email though and I hope it gets you the answers you want. It's between you / OT and school - not an LEA issue - unless you can prove that school have totally ignored OT's recommendations. But you won't know that until you get OT's response to your email.

You're DS is going through something very similar to what mine experienced. he used to come home complaining of having been hurt etc by others and I used to write to the school about it as you yourself are doing. School used to attemptto make me out to be at fault / neurotic etc.

It's bullying.

School did nothing and it all ended in a horrible decline for my DS but I did have copies of all the letters I sent school proving all the attempts I had made to get them to address the issue. Eventually son sued the school for educational negligence.

Carry on keeping the diary and copies of the letters - they are all very useful evidence.

I agree with wetaugust.

Goto your LEAs website they may have documents on there such as criteria to assess-That is what you maybe told in return from the LEA SEN officer anyway.

Print out the parts relevant to add to your collection of paperwork.

Also get a Box File and label it Tribunal. Do 3 copies of all paper work. One for you, one for the tribunal and one for the LEA when the time comes to send in evidence. Can you record your son as DVDs can be used as evidence?

Wetaugust, they will probably cover for each other no doubt. Still that email should 'set the cat amongst the pigeons' its amazing how quickly loyalty goes when it could be them thats been accused of negligence.

Im fed up with it, they cant claim that whatever ds says cannot be relied upon because of his sensory issues and disorder, then also claim that he doesnt have any sensory issues or a disorder. They need to make up their minds, if its disorder related then give him some help, if its not then he is being bullied. Give them enough rope and they always hang themselves!

Thanks very much for all your help.

Wassup, i dont have anything from OT. OT have been a nightmare. OT assessed ds in October 2008 and supposed to go into school to advise staff when he started in Jan 09 and get back to me to follow this up with treatment, write a report etc, etc. She didnt go into school or write a report etc, etc.

I had to make a complaint about her. OT then tried to give me an outdated, inaccurate report last month from 2008!

What is a standarised score?

Wetaugust, how old was your ds when all this happened, if you dont mind me asking?

If you dont want to talk about it, tell me to mind my own.

Did the OT see your son for sensory issues or motor skills or both?

For sensory issues it is usual that you would be asked to fill in a Winnie Dunn questionnaire which the OT would be able to work out where your son had greatest difficulty and advise accordingly. Some areas sometimes have a sensory program as well.

For motor skills the OT usually assesses using a test known as the VMI or/and the ABC battery of movement test. These tests give standardised centile scores. Which is a score out of 100 children were your child would be. say being on the 50th centile is average? Most LEAs will only consider statutory assessing if a child is in the bottom 2 per cent at about the 1st centile or below.

Claw, if the OT had done a sensory profile (it is a long form you fill out with him/her) it would give you one of three scores:

Typical performance
Probable difference
Definite difference

The latter indicates a child has clear sensory processing problems.

If this has not been undertaken, then this is another area you should be pushing for a full assessment in.

Keep focused on the criteria:

1. Why he needs an SA - to obtain a complete picture of his problems
2. Why he probably has learning difficulties - sensory, social communication etc
3. Why he probably needs a statement - likely to need intensive assistance school cannot provide without statement

Look at chapter 7 of SEN COP and keep focused on what has to be shown

Claw

He was a lot older than yours - at secondary school before the bullying got really serious and I was writing to the school about it constantly.

I just noted the similarities - school's keeness to slag off the parent rather than deal with the issues.

You have the advantage over me - you know at your son's young age just how devious and cynical the school / LA are - I naively didn't realise then that people could act so unreasonably.

Best wishes

Sensory issues, all of his senses included vestibular and proprioceptive are affected, each sense to a varying degree. He also has hyper-mobility in shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers and possibly his legs (they are very bendy and he complains of aches and pains) although he is very agile, normal gait etc.

He soils himself, because of limited sensation around the need to 'go' and has under/over and sensory seeking and defensive behaviours. He is a bit clumsy, always crashing into this and full of bruises, but in sure is more sensory seeking that causes it.

Wetaugust, thank god for MN is all that i can say, if i didnt have MN i would still be in the dark and very trusting.

Well you certain know your stuff now, so you learnt pretty damn quick!

Morning, sorry to drive everyone nuts with this!

I have been reading through all the details school have supplied and being the cynic that i am, ive been looking at 'whats in it for school' ie why are saying that.

They have included a copy of ds's attendance record and his attendance is 70%. They have also commented in IEP that ds is unsettled after periods of absence. Im guessing they trying to blame me for this and this could also be used as 'intervention is not working, because he is never in school'?

They have marked lots of medical as illness, days he has been sent home from school as medical, some unexplained and unauthorised absences. They are marking a whole morning/afternoon as medical when ds is some cases has only missed an hour of school.

I wrote to them in January setting the record straight on unexplained, unauthorised, medical etc and provided medical evidence again and meet with the LA attendance officer. So they should have amended his attendance record, but they have not.

I will write to the school again about this, should i include copy of letter with letter to LA?

Hi Claw

The errors in his attendance record is an issue that you need to sort out with school - and they should change it as the Data protection Actgives you the right to have erroneous information amended.

The LA will not get involved in thsi so no point contcating them about it. You do however need to get school to amend the records as that's further ammo at SENDIST that school have provided false information to the LA on which the LA based their decision not to assess.

It's a war of attrition - keeping on at them time after time until they get the message.

Best wishes

Thanks Wet and Star, i have so much evidence its hard not to go rushing in and overwhelming everyone!

Right ive got it, just the letter to the LA for now. Ive minutes of the meeting in Feb which i sent to the school and they havent disagreed with them.

One more question, sorry this is quite a lot to get my head around.

Despite telling me at meeting in Feb that ds hasnt used his cards and hasnt been to see his learning mentor since October. They are now stating ds asks goes to see his learning mentor often and tells her when he is overwhelmed.

Should the school record this?

Disregard that, ive answered my own question.

Use of the card is a target, so it should be monitored. If the dont monitor it they cant claim it has been a success.

Have a lot on my plate at the moment, i should think before i type!

Anyhow thanks again everyone for your patience and help.

Claw

When I requested an SA for DS school's report to the LA was total rubbish (actually they failed to write anything at all meaningful)!! I asked the LA to get school to write a 'proper' report. The LA told me that as far as it was concerned the school had fulfilled its obligations i.e. LA had requested report and school had provided (crappy inaccurate) report. The LA then told me that if I didn't agree with school that was a metter i had to take up directly with school - the LA would not get involved.

That's how it works.

So if your school has been telling the LA porkies then you need to tackle school - not the LA.

Hope this helps.