Should school have shared their concerns before now?

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

Currently going through a very difficult time with 15 year old DS. Police and social services now involved and police suggested there may be an underlying undiagnosed condition affecting his behaviour. Never considered it until now but having started research I'm having some major ' Penny drop' moments! School still supportive and I'Ve been actively engaged with them for past 4 years.

Last week I gave them an update on the current situation and said we're going to seek an assessment for ADHD/ODD for DS. Was told that they thought that might the case but are not allowed to share these thoughts with parents... they are educators not psychologists. Is this for real or am I being spun a line? My GP thinks it's codswallop... if school had shared concerns of ND before now, we may (or may not) be in a different place.

Any thoughts please?

[Imitatingdory]

They can’t diagnose but they can certainly share concerns and suggest a referral for assessment.

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

Yes that's what I thought. Not diagnose but certainly share concerns or suggest an assessment.

Very new to all this and will be finding my feet. I hope the school continues to support and doesn't try to get rid of him...

[Imitatingdory]

Is it an independent school or state school?

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

State school - single academy.

[Imitatingdory]

In that case they can’t just off roll DS. The only way to “get rid of him” would be to permanently exclude, which is fairly difficult and requires them to follow due process. And the school must make their best endeavours to meet his SEN.

Have you thought about applying for an EHCNA?

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

Thanks for this info... I've got a questionnaire for the school from the GP as part of the referral process... is this the start of an EHCNA?

[Imitatingdory]

No, it’s not. That sounds more like a questionnaire related to diagnostic assessment. You apply to the LA for an EHCNA. IPSEA have a model letter you can use on their website.

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

Ok thanks. Will look at that.... I've got a lot to learn!

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

@Imitatingdory

No, it’s not. That sounds more like a questionnaire related to diagnostic assessment. You apply to the LA for an EHCNA. IPSEA have a model letter you can use on their website.

Getting there. Thanks for the advice and support

[Booboo24]

My 14 year old daughter was getting into trouble for being disruptive at school (talking in class mainly) long story short I paid for her to have a private ADHD assessment for which she got diagnosed, the Dr that assessed her said that I should look into having her assessed for Autism as she suspected there was some Social Communication Disorder tendencies. I paid for this too but mentioned to the SENco that we were on a waiting list. Her reply was...'oh yes I'd certainly back that up from my interactions with her'. I was speechless at the time, not once had they said anything to me about their suspicions at all. She got diagnosed with Autism Wednesday and in the 2 days since they have been breaking their necks to get her in for Speech and Language therapy, dyslexia testing etc. Makes me so mad that they had these thoughts but didn't once bring it up with me. So yes, I'm afraid your experience seems to match mine and it seems these schools seem to shy away from things like this. It seems easier to label them difficult children.

Op I hope you get the support you need from this, it's a difficult time

[VagueSemblance]

Our experience has been that they wait for parents to raise concerns, over multiple teachers in different schools. I can buy it actually. They are not qualified to diagnose, and I've seen the other side where a teacher was vilified for suggesting a child might have SEN. However, I wish it was made obvious to parents that it works this way. As parents we had a strong default assumption that as they hadn't raised a concern, they didn't think it was a problem.