Statementing

[Al1son]

Hi I'm new to this game. I have a 12 year old who is newly diagnosed with high functioning ASD. She coped with school until this year when she started high school. She's never been that happy in school but academically she's doing brilliantly across the board. The ASD diagnosis has been a bolt from the blue.

She struggled with the high school environment from day one so they had been supporting her in the mainstream autism base on site unofficially because they (and we) thought the issue was simple anxiety.

Now she has a working diagnosis of ASD they have removed her locker in the base and told us that they can't support her any more because there is no space for another statemented child. Her attendance has been sporadic for the whole year and the base has been her rock when she was there.

Their motivation would appear to be to ensure that she is not established in their base so the statement won't name them. They've recommended that I send her to a really big high school with a base which is 20 miles away and is subject to special measures.

If we move her to that school I know for sure she'll refuse point blank to attend. It would be far too much to cope with.

Has anyone got any experience of this or any good advice?

Hi

I would certainly complain in writing to the current school about it's deciison to effectively 'evict' her from the base unit while she continues to have difficulties with the secondary setting.

Statements are not just issued for children who are failing to achieve academically - they are also issued for children who need additional non-academic support because of their disabilities - such as a need to be in the sheltered base unit.
It's quite unusual to actaully be in a base unit without a Statement - so that's something you may wish to consider applying for.

In fact i would request an assessment for a Statement right now if you feel she will not be able to continue in mainstream unsupported. i would not consider moving her to another school many miles away - that just shifts the problem.

They may say they cannot take another Statemented pupil but ulimately the choice is really the Local Authoriy's who will put pressure on them to accommodate her if she has a Statement and the LA feel that the base unit is the best placement for her.

To just cast her back unsupported into mainstream is an option that is not tenable and will affect her very badly.

Best wishes

Thanks WetAugust,

Sorry, I should have made that bit clearer. The Ed Psych asked the school to request a statutory assessment two weeks ago which, I think, is why they've removed her from the base. It looks like they are determined not to take her in there full time once she has a statement and they know that if they support her now they will be told to take her, full or not, once the statement is issued.
They've offered to give her unofficial support with the children with learning difficulties and behaviour issues. This is a really fraught and occasionally violent environment and she cannot cope in there.

They brought up the subject of Ed welfare too because she's not attended for two weeks. I'm considering approaching ed welfare myself saying that they are effectively excluding her by not offering appropriate support but I don't know what their attitude is likely to be.Has anyone else ever done this?

I'm going to ring parent partnership today and I'm thinking of getting some legal advice too. If anyone has a good solicitor for this sort of thing I'd love to hear about them.

The problem is I am so angry about how they are playing political games with her that I can't think logically about it.I could write to the head but he might know what's happening already and agree with it. The woman who runs the base is a volunteer for our local parent partnership so I don't know how much they'll want to challenge her.

Why do they have to make it even harder than it has to be?