Enforcing a reduced timetable - legal?

[AndieWalsh]

I'm going to ring IPSEA later, but wanted to check if any of you know the score with this.

School have been trying to get us to agree to a reduced timetable (going home at lunchtimes, early finishes to the day) for weeks. We have refused this on a number of grounds (wont bore you with all that now).

Today the SENCo said that he had spoken to the SEN team manager from the borough (top man) and been told that they could legally enforce a reduced timetable. Of course they 'hope it won;t come to that'. Nice thinly veiled threat there. Is he right? Can they do this?

How old is your DC? Things are slightly different if your child is below statutory school age.

If you don't agree with a reduced timetable it sounds as though they are threatening a series of pre-emptive fixed term exclusions!

He is 5 yrs old, in reception.

Is that the only way they could get round this? to exclude my child every lunchtime, for example?

To be honest, if they did this, I would withdraw my son from the school.

When was he 5? If he's not reached statutory school age i.e. he turned 5 after Easter then they could, in theory, reduce his place to a part-time one.

I'm sure IPSEA will be able to give you more useful information. Without knowing quite what else is at play I'm not much use. Sorry.

If they ask you to have him home at lunchtime this counts as an exclusion and they can only do it a certain number of times.
Has he got a Statement because that will have some bearing on the situation?
If you withdraw your son from the school you need to have a back up plan.
I can appreciate how upsetting this is for you. I am not a huggy kissy person, but sending best wishes.

Legally children only have to have a minimum 20 hours provision at school and I think they can average that over a school year. Where I work we have alot of children on half days if they can not cope all day but the aim is always to build back up to full days. The theory is that it is better to end the day positively.

Sorry I know that doesn't help you.

Thanks for all replies so far.

DS was five in Jan.

The LEA are currently doing a SA. have been advised verbally by Ed Psych, SENCo and LEA case officer that he will almost certainly get a statement. We just need to wait and see what the proposed statement includes. He has 1:1 support already, but the funding runs out at the end of this term (without a statement).

My argument is that reducing his hours is just a way for the school staff to get some respite / LEA not to have to deal with him full time. He has AS, is havign a lot of difficulty settling into school, and I do not think reducing his hours is going to make all of that magically disappear. I actually think coming home for lunch will make things worse, adding two more anxiety-provoking points to his day (leaving, reintegrating). I am quite furious about this, I'm afraid.

I don't have a'back up plan' at the moment I just want the LEA to provide my son with full time education, one way or another. is that unreasonable, FFS?

Andie - Hi, I feel your pain. It is so disruptive having to deal with these things. I had a month when DS came home every day for lunch and he is 7. He is undergoing dx at the moment but as Aspie like traits. He just found the whole school day very tiring.

The problem is that it can be ten times more tiring to cope with a school day when you're having to work ten times harder than everyone else just to keep pace with the sensory and social aspects of life.

I don't know the answer about enforcement but I would say, in case it helps at all, that DS did go back after coming home for a while. He will do it now and again when feeling run down but we get straight back into the swing of things when he perks up.

I am lucky in that I work from home although I have concluded I have to at the moment so I have let career opportunities go begging. I know that not everyone is in the same situation and the school day is short enough as it is without reducing it further.

I would isolate with school the precise problems/triggers. Coudl you have a meeting and just thrash out some suggestions and look at all the pros and cons?Do you have an ed psych involved or Autism Outreach who could help with suggestions? Does he already get breaks in the day? A run around the playground on his own or sitting in the library with some toys/book? Perhaps these things could be tried first?

I don't know if I'm being helpful or not and I am not being prescriptive here but telling you what worked for me but taking two steps back really helps with DS sometimes. Just letting things settle before you can move forward again.

"I have no back up plan"

I don't know the legal basis but do they had to provide some childcare option (so you can work - see Childcare Act) or a home tutor?

Are there any special schools for ASD in your area which take children in without a statement in similar circs? in our area they are setting up enhanced mainstream schools for ASD (mainstream schools with some specialist ASD teachers) - originally it was going to run as a unit within mainstream but (I think because govt guidelines about exclusions) they now intend to use them for inreach which means taking in children from other schools for a temporary period or for a % of week and then training up the TA / school the child has come from so the child can go back. Lots of flaws in the proposal eg disruptive etc and in our area they are proposing only children with statements can access inreach whereas parents are pointing out its usually the ones without statements whose needs are not met and need crisis intervention.

Are there any ABA providers near you who could work to support your son at school / at home. You'd have a battle to get the LA to pay for private intervention but if the school can't cope and there is no other local provision you might stand a good chance? If you could afford it you could look at getting an ABA tutor to collect son from school and tutor him at home in pm and then look to get this funded.

The old DCSF (now Dept of Education) used to have guidance on exclusions on its website.

The other thing they tend to fall back on is pupil referral units but not really suitable for a 5 year old.

What is their long-term solution, other than waiting for a statement?

This says that lunch-time exclusions are each 'half-day' exclusions. Schools can only exclude for 45 days per year, so 9 weeks. That means that if they were only excluding him at lunchtime, they could get away with 18 weeks of no lunchtimes.

Don't forget that if he has already been excluded then those days/half-days need to be taken off of the 90 half-day limit.