ASD and free at home GCSE learning at 16?

[Crazyhouse123]

This was so long but condensed down now as so much was probably irrelevant so please ask if further info needed!
DD (16) diagnosed with asd at 14 though suspected for many years previously.
Refused school and has grade 2 maths and eng lit grade 2.5 science and grade 4 eng lang from the papers that were sent home for her to do.
College is a non starter the level 2 course is very heavy on subjects that she isn't interested in with only small emphasis on the one she does want.
We have discussed at length best way forward and think that online learning is the way to go to do her GCSE's again this year and then reapply to do the level 3 course she would like to do. What are my options for this? Is there any online college that will be able to get funding for her to do this for free or will I need to pay?
Just to add longer version included why her secondary let her down, and me with advise they gave me at the start (I trusted them to know what was the best way to help but turns out I was very wrong to!)
Thank you for any assistance!

Does DD have an EHCP?
Why was medical needs tuition not provided when DD couldn't attend school?

Nope, dd didn’t/ doesn't have an EHCP as the school advised there was no point applying due to how difficult it would be to get. No one told me I could apply myself until year 11. The school gave me no information or guidance and CAMHS were next to useless. The people at CAMHS are lovely just stretched beyond capacity.
I had to push the school to allow dd to be given a safe space when she couldn't cope. I also pushed for use of their sn learning hub but they advised that this was only as a last resort. I did point out that my child not attending school may be a last resort situation but apparently not.
And no, no medical needs tuition until the last half term when she was given access to our local inclusion hub and they arranged online eng, maths and science but this was too late for any of this work to be included in the teacher assessed GCSE's.
My big mistake was trusting the school to know how to best help my child, instead of calling me just about daily as she was missing and asking me to contact her....invariably she was hiding in the disabled toilets. Her individual teachers were lovely but the slt team were totally inflexible.

Apply for an EHCNA, don't listen to the school putting you off. IPSEA have a model letter. Sadly, many schools incorrectly tell parents they won't get a EHCP, then when the parents submit, then when the parents submit a parental request they do get an EHCP. The benefit of an EHCP is it can include therapies such as CBT.

A year behind you but same things are happening. My DD refuses school the envuronment brings her to the point of self destruction and I don't want to lose her. Did 2 mock exams at home. No result for 1 yet and a 3 for the other. I'm at my wits end with the school. I know they're stretched but this is my DDs health and happiness I'm certain they can do something that fact that she got a 3 in maths with an attendance of 30%ish shows how much she's been failed. I'm going to look at self applying for an ehcp it's just so daunting, my youngest is SN too and I'm exhausted but I need to pull up my big girl pants and find the energy to do it. Follow itsmeimmie on Instagram. She's the daughter of a itv producer and they self applied for ehcp after late diagnoses asd. She's doing amazing with the right support in place. Is high functioning which I assume your DD is and the reason they didnt apply for ehcp. It's not too late to apply for help I think it's up to age 21 or 23. You can do it x

EHCPs can last until 25 if necessary.

Crazy as well as applying for an EHCP as DD is CSA the LA should be providing medical needs EOTAS tuition.

@overworkedrobot thankyou I'll have a read online and print out forms this week - no one tells you these things do they :( almost 4 years we've been stuck on a roundabout it feels. I thought formal diagnosis would magically change it, 2 local disability charities involved over this time one that attended pandemic meetings on zoom for/with me. She got 2.5 months 3hrs per week 1to1 with a TA from the school in a meeting room after some to and fro and I was really grateful big step up but since then nothing. They don't really care that she's not in; I don't even get the fail to report absence messages any more.

They put her on totally the wrong gcse pathway but I was clueless its been so long since I was at school and I only had my friends SN son to go by as he isn't mainstream educated so I need to be prepared for my youngest next year as they're even worse with him. He's very quiet/teacher phobia so it's constant detentions as that's rude, no consideration for his 2 x diagnosis at all. Gets called a liar, lazy the list could go on forever and this is an 'outstanding' school in an area we stretched ourselves to move to.

OP if your DD has any willingness/inclination to self teach online or will sit with you to do it together (and you have time) while hopefully paperwork/funding comes together BBC bitesize has lots of content now and you can filter by exam board for specific subjects if that helps. Corbett maths is another resource I was directed to and I'll try to think of some others if that kind of thing is useful.
X

Apply for an EHCNA here using the model letter. Tell them your DD has been school refusing for however long it is.

www.ipsea.org.uk/ehc-needs-assessments