I have a copy of ds's school record and info

[claw3]

Following on from last thread, i now have a copy and info and would appreciate your comments!

Schools SEN budget is £25,444

There is no maximum or minimum number it covers

Statemented pupils 2, SA plus 15, school action 21

All file has in it is correspondence and IEPS, surely it should contain more?

Apart from that it contains - A note is written on a incident on 16/1/09 where ds ran away and hid and they couldnt find him (a week after ds started school)

Note from SENCO about OT phone conversation on 11/11/08.

Note from SENCO about first and only telephone conversation with me on 12/11/08 prior to ds starting school with no IEP in place. Starts 'ds's mum phoned school to speak with me, despite being told by OT the day before that i would call her in my own time.

Next 'Ds is the youngest of 3 boys, brothers are 12 and 15. Mum says that he is capable of playing well with them. She reports that ds is very adult like in his opinion of fairness. I suggested that to a degree he has and is, growing up in house of 4 adults. This appeared to be quite a revelation to her, and she said 'oh ive never thought of it like that'

Mum states he rarely gets into trouble, though there was an incident when he hit anoth child on the head - again in his eyes not his fault since the other child was not sharing!!

Does this mean that i am finally getting somewhere?

YES - I think you are

Woo hoo

How does this affect my SA request?

So i still go to tribunal and state that school have requested an EP assessment and report will follow?

So i still go to tribunal and state that school have requested an EP assessment and report will follow?

Yes

And it also strengthens your case as school obviously have concerns to call in an EP - unless they are doing this to rule out any SENs - which is unlikely.

I would write on the permission form that you consent but expect to be provided with a copy of the EP's report / assessment.

Best wishes

Wet, my gut instinct is that school are doing this to try and rule out any SEN. They think im an over anxious mother. Despite reports that they already have, where ds's has been assessed and tested and my concerns confirmed, they really are blinkered.

When i first went to CAMHS i know that school had reported that they didnt think ds had autism and his problems were caused by my 'over anxious' parenting. I could tell by the kind of questions CAMHS were asking and comments.

My concerns are that they will tell EP (as they do will every professional who goes into school) that ds doesnt have any difficulties or that his difficulties are 'minimal' as they reported to OT and she wrote in her report.

Will EP assess/test ds FULLY regardless of what school report?

You need to check with school if the EP is observing or assessing.

Agree with Wassup - the EP may just be observing rather than conducting assessments tests. Why don't you ask to be present to speak with the EP.

Claw -Agree about asking to meet with EP. I have always been offered a meeting directly after EP seeing DD.

Received mine here today!!!! Had a quick scan through. Massive holes! Teachers written daily reports over a period of 6 weeks about DD falling asleep in class, unco-operative and awkward and when questioned DD said she felt very unwell. This all before i asked if they had noticed any illness and they replied "NO". An email sent between staff saying that "Mum has contacted the school about DDs apparent (in bold & italics) illness. Who has diagnosed? MUM (again bold & italics)??????????"
They had a consultants letter about the diagnosis.

Will look through more when I have the patience. Its masses!!

Just checked letter and enclosures from school, i have 2 consent forms.

1. for school to consult with the EP with regards to ds's learning, development and behaviour.

1. for EP to work directly with ds.

Perhaps i should sign 2nd and not the 1st, tell them i dont want them talking to anyone until they are capable of talking sense instead of crap!

Apparently you cant sign 2, without signing 1, but you can sign 1 without 2, thats convenient for school! I wonder what the odds on, on school consulting with EP about ds's learning, development and behaviour and EP deciding 2 is not needed.

Positive, its so shit isnt it! Why do they feel that you would lie or wish a non existent disability onto your child. You wouldnt want your worst enemy to go through it, let alone your own child.

I am so fed up with being treated like an idiot and a nuisance. Im so fed up with being patronised.

Sounds like you have enough evidence already. Its terrible that they are allowed to do this, when children are involved.

I started my letter today and i have written

SALT requested school fill out a Social Communication Skills questionnaire 23/9/09. The majority of the boxes ticked were ?rarely appropriate or never appropriate? with only 1 box ticked for ?always appropriate?. On 20th January 2010 school were asked to fill out a similar Social Communication Skills questionnaire for Autism Assessment Service and the majority of the boxes ticked indicated ?no difficulties?.

Most of difficulties you have ticked ?no? to are listed as concerns in ds's IEP. For example ?difficulty at coping with lunch time or play time, school have ticked ?no?. These are listed as difficulties in October/November/February IEP?s. School are either deliberately supplying false information to the Autism assessment or are unable to understand or identify ds?s difficulties, which is it?

What also add school seemed obsessed with the fact that ds doesnt have a dx of autism yet. Despite me telling them, his social communication have been highlighted in numerous reports and Autism Assessment Service have given a verbal diagnosis of autism and actually wrote in their report that they observed ds displaying signs of autism, they still keep harping on about he doesnt have a dx.

Given that they obviously told CAMHS that they didnt think ds has autism, i think they are now trying to hinder his autism assessment.

I realise saying (or typing)that out loud makes me sound paranoid, but i dont know what to think anymore.

would also add, not what.

Claw - just a thought and I don't know the full history as fairly new here, but is anyone intending to make a diagnosis? I am only asking because we are now stuck in a bizarre situation where we have discovered that our PCT will not commission OT, SALT, CAMHS to diagnose ASC in school age children. Now the penny has finally dropped why we have been sent from pillar to post for the last year with everyone agreeing to difficulties but no one prepared to steer it. Lots of evasion and in the end our DS not going to school AT ALL. Eventually by sheer luck found amazing paed who has stuck neck out and made a diagnosis (although not commissioned to either) which some will work with but everyone else refuses to acknowledge ...
In our case school supportive, but it is still not getting us anywhere.
Could something similar be going on here, or does your PCT have a proper pathway to diagnosis?

Amper, here we have a pathway, all you need for a dx is input from SALT and Paed or Psychologist for a dx.

Autism Assessment Service here is made up of Paed, SALT and another specialist. All of whom have assessed ds and agreed he has autism. He will receive his official dx on paper in May.

Ds is also receiving OT, Dietitian, feeding clinic, CAMHS, SALT support.

School just seem to think that ill informed opinion of ds is more important and accurate than mine and all the professionals.

It all gets rather complicated. They have been misguided by old OT and vice versa (who i had to make an official complaint about) She was going into school in Jan 2009 when ds first started and because school were not recognising ds's needs they were telling her he had no difficulties and was 'settling in well'. Although on ds's school file there are reports of ds trying to escape from school by climbing the fence, going missing and hiding and teachers having to hunt for him, refusing to line up etc, etc, they didnt mention this to OT as ds was being 'difficult and sulking'. So she didnt bother going into school anymore and they both concluded that ds didnt have any difficulties.

So i am now having to battle with OT and school, as they literally ganged up on me.

Not a battle either school or OT will win, as i have evidence and also have a new OT who does her job properly who is on side.

Just unbelievable and i now have to explain and prove myself 24/7.

Who can give a dx, where you are then Amper? thats ridiculous isnt it!

I would asking the PCT for that policy in writing.

Claw - words fail me really and I feel for your frustration. I have never understood why some schools will not see it as in their best interests to acknowledge issues and take the support.
We moved schools because in previous DS was an attention-seeking child who just needed to try harder ...
No one at all can dx here. Local NAS branch taking it up with the commissioners (thank goodness - I have written so many letters already to everyone else). Paed looking into whether we have to be sent out of area for dx

We have been given June/July as a rough guide as to when we will "know" officially one way or another. We were lucky enough to find that the Head Consultant of CAMHS worked at the local private hospital one afternoon a week and he saw our son and referred him on to his own diagnostic team at CAMHs after verbally saying that he thought our son has Aspergers.
The CAMHs team here seem to be keeping to a 6 month guideline.
Otherwise we were left with the Paed and the SaLT who seemed more interested in what the school thought than us, even though the Paeds professional opinion when he first saw our son before he started school was Aspergers. The Paed likes to give 6/7 monthly appointments between visits. The SaLT said it was beyond her remit to assess our son at lunch or breaktimes.
So the LEA have just agreed to stat assess after their EP assessed our son, after at first refusing but gave in 9 days before the SEND tribunal date.
The SENco is now saying that they like to wait until a child is in Year 2 before they are sure that they can tick certain boxes. They have had children behave in certain ways before in the Reception and Year 1 but these children have settled down in Year 2 and been fine........
Hope you get things soted soon Ampers.

Thanks wasuup. I will no doubt start another thread on our saga In the meantime Claw, I am sure you will get there in the end, seems we all have to fight for one reason or another but looks like you are getting good at it!

If anything good has come through having to go through all of this, it is that I am more assertive, able to argue my points will all and sundry and don't take any crap of them anymore. I am naturally quite a quiet person and it all was quite hard to start with but it does get easier. You will get good at it. Meetings can be quiet fun when you can say to the other party "So you are saying...." and the other party agrees. Then you say "but I have this in writing from you" and the other party doesn't know where to put themselves.
It sounds like you are getting there claw-Well Done!

Claw you are doing brilliantly and I think you are building up lots of great evidence which will demonstrate your son's needs. The school's inability to see these needs for themselves does them no good at all as when you get that dx and LA people get involved through your SA application, it will become clear that the two things do not sit together - a dx of autism and assistance with soem significant problems and a school saying there are no problems.

As you know I have had a similar experience. School are coming round because of interventions from outsiders and the weight of evidence. They still don't see things that I see e.g. problems with socks and shoes which drive DS mad at home. I used to feel really touchy about this and would even ask DS 'why do these things not bother you' at school and he would get distressed and say he didn't know.

Now, I understand these things a little better, I can see that putting socks and shoes on for the first time in the day can be a sensory overload moment but you rarely have to take them off again at school abd, if you do, nothing is probably quite as distressing as that first time in the moment when your brain gets the sensations for the first time.

Anyway, the point of babbling on like this is just to say that these things do manifest themselves in different ways in different settings. School can be a routine ridden and regular world and actually help some children with ASD unless the unpredictable happens or unstructured times are unsupported. I often think it is the outside world that DS has most bother with now school have really switched on to helping. Being able to explain this to school helped me too.

Finally, Ampers, my understanding is that if there is no pathway, you are entitled to be seen out of the area with an application for exceptional funding which your GP or paed can do.

Amper, if one Borough does not have the service, it is standard practise for the Borough you live in to fund for the nearest Borough who do have the service. (I went through this with OT)

Your GP can refer. Good luck.

Wassup, thanks I am usually very passive too, I dont mind being assertive especially when it comes to my children, but it drives me nuts having to keep pointing out the obvious, its like a full time job!

Debs, yes we also seem to be in similar situations dont we!

Getting changed for PE for example, it was school who reported to me that ds had difficulties. I reply what help are you going to give and this quickly changes to he doesnt have any difficulties. During meetings they will say he doesnt have any difficulties with changing. Then 2 seconds later he is very slow and always the last one changed. Thats a difficulty then isnt it! Well no its not, he only needs help when he gets upsets. Why does he get upset. Because he gets flustered. ARGH!

He hates PE days, doesnt want to go to school, says he feels sick. He was sent home from school for being physically sick on PE day. Then a week later sent home needing medical treatment because he had pulled out his eyelashes to the point of his eyelid swelling up (hardly any eyelashes left)

School are just not able or willing to see the connection.

Also TA's are always reporting to me, that ds has lost his trousers, put on another child's clothes insisting they are his, didnt have his kit (he did, he has hidden it) He comes home with his clothes on back to front, inside out, shoes on the wrong feet etc, etc.

I wonder what he would have to do for there to a problem!

Thanks for the vote of confidence Debs

Oh yes PE. The teacher doesn't mind the fact that my son struggles getting changed/dressed because he is in a mixed Reception and Year one class and other Reception children have the same difficulties. Then she reports on the other hand the said son gets distracted and loses concentration when its time to get changed for PE.

Wassup, despite ds being at school now for over a year. SENCO and teachers dont know ds any better than a stranger.

They know even less about SN's and connections between behaviours. Now i dont expect them to be experts, but these are supposedly intelligent people, who should be able to take on board what experts and parents report to them.

It makes me want to grab their shoulders and shake them!

Claw, I sympathise as the ASD team leader who went in was actually told by the teacher that DS was usually first to get changed for PE - when I told my friend who helps out in class, she spat out her coffee!!

I think they just see the whole intervention thing as a slight on them as if someone is saying this child has problems because you don't know how to deal with them. So they pretend that there are no problems as it's better than admitting they don;t know what to do. They don't see that telling the truth is about helping the child rather than criticising them.

On top of this, some teachers just do not want to create extra work.