Rejected for a Statutory Assesment by council..where to now?

[Nunu500]

My husband and I with the support of our sons school, recently applied for a Statutory Assessment. Our son who is 7 and in year 2 is currently struggling at school. He has been on School Action Plus for 18 months now and was recently assessed by a developmental paediatrician. Although both the Ed psyc, Dev Paed, OT and Speech and Language therapist have identified issues no one can definitively say exactly what is wrong or different about him. Their respective reports are very general about the areas where he struggles particularly highlighting his social communication skills, lack of concentration, aural comprehension, very slow writing speed, inability to grasp mathematical concepts and his constant need for additional explanation from his class teacher. I know for some parents not having a label is better, but in our case we would rather have a label so that we can better inform and educate ourselves how to best help him to achieve his best and feel good about himself. We received a letter from our local council this week to say that the Special Education panel felt that our son?s needs were not so significant or complex as to require a SA. They felt that he was making adequate progress. It was also noted that the IEP presented by the school were not signed by us (it was but think the school submitted the wrong ones). I wondered if this has further contributed to their decision. As he will be entering year 3 soon where the pace of work picks up and is more complex, we are even more concerned that he is not going to be able to keep up. Please can anyone advise where we go from here? It is obvious to us that he is struggling and it is having a negative effect on his confidence and willingness to learn. I would be grateful for any advise concerning the above. Many thanks.

Nunu,

Who made the statement application originally, was it yourselves?.

When also did the LEA refuse your request? (BTW they do this more often than not as a matter of course). You must personally appeal their crass decision, do not accept their "no" because you are your child's best - and for that matter only - advocates.

School sending in the wrong IEP does not help any but would have not made a big dent overall in their decision to say no.

Look at IPSEA's "refusal to assess" pack as that will help you further. At the very least seek independent advice from IPSEA and other organisations like for instance ACE and SOS:SEN. They can help you as well, the more information you yourselves have here the better as knowledge is power!.

IPSEA's website is detailed below:-

www.ipsea.org.uk. There is also a helpline for parents.

Hi Atilla,

Thank you for your response. The school originally applied with our consent. We also sent a letter to accompany the application. Thank you for the ipsea website details going to have a look at it this evening and hopefully get somewhere. All feels a bit stressful. Had my son crying last night that he is stupid and dumb and why can't he understand things....broke my heart!

Hi Nunu

I really feel for you as your son sounds like the mirror image of my son aged 5.

My son has been diagnosed to have ASD, Sensory Intergration difficulties, Speech delay and problems and overall developmental delay effecting his motor skills.

We are just starting the process of requesting an assessment and are really worried that like you we will be turned down.

YOu can appeal can't you when the request is turned down?

Also, can you go back to the proffessionals and push them to decide what is wrong, and yes get an answer! Like you said, in a way you never want your child to be labelled as anything, but at least when he is diagnosed officially, the Education authority can't argue that he doesn't have obvious needs.

Good luck.

Hi there. I haven't posted here for a long time, but we're going through something similar and have also been refused an assessment. We decided to leave it and see how she progressed over the following few months for a few reasons - she had recently started on medication and her best friend had left to live in Australia which caused her a great deal of stress at the time. She has moved on from that though and medication is helping her with focus. That said though, she has made negligible progress in a whole year and none in reading, writing or maths. We will be applying again in October and have the school's backing. This time if we are refused, we will most definitely appeal.

Dd will be 10 in a few weeks and her levels are that of an average 7yo. Her self confidence is low as is her self worth. She has a dx of AD/HD predominantly innatentive. Her IQ is average but her performance doesn't anywhere near match her IQ level.

We viewed a school today (ds1 goes there and is doing very well). There is no way, however, I feel they could meet her needs currently without a statement as her Ed Psyche has said she needs a large amount of individual and small group support. She would be in a low ability group with a teacher and TA - same as every other class gets unless children have a statement. This would not be enough support as presumably the other children will need TA support also.

Anyway, I probably haven't been of much help, but you're definitely not alone in this stressful process! Given hindsight though, I would appeal at the first hurdle because everything takes so long and we've left it too late now to appeal the first decision and are definitely regretting it now!

am going through all this just about to go to appeal of the statment i just got also ds started school on SA+ at five turned down for two staments now ds 13 now diagnosed with ASD very simular traits to your child moved county are the second refusal some county councils are notorious bad for giving statments so check it out also we got a couple of private reports done this time also which were very indepth they were not cheap but it made all the difference got the statment on third application however not happy with the provision so taking it to tribunal you can apply for it yourself the school wont do it go to SENDIST and download all the gumpf! make sure you do it soon it takes ages to get the provision in place even when they give you a stament and even then you may have to appeal that to get the right proviosion for your child.

Hello kittycat, dungungirl and Aero,(sounds like a superhero script! Many thanks for your responses. It is great to know we are not alone out there! We are definitely going to appeal and plan to check with the school just how well our son is progressing and why they feel in not necessary to appeal. It is strange how gung ho they seemed originally but now that he has been rejected they equally feel that he will cope well and is making good progress on School Action Plus. It is confusing! But we think he needs further help so will go 'over' the school if we have too and appeal ourselves. Best of luck to you too and hope you get the necessary help needed for your little ones.

hi
keep fighting go to appeal, I found the LEA EP was very wishy washy, with her opinion, not really reccomending anything, when I spoke to an independant EP she told me that LEA EP arent allowed to make recomend anything, they are only allowed to test and make observations, the LEA wont give out assessments easily or statements for that matter as it involves money, funding, money funding, money. so keep fighting.