UltraMum

The mind boggles Thanks for making me laugh

Dreadful here too - M18 closed from Doncaster to M62 so all the traffic uses the A18 which goes past our door Main town bridge that connects one side of Doncaster to the other also closed so traffic uses A18 to drive through the local village and over the lift bridge to cross the river Don at Barnby Dun Flood alert at Barnby Dun so the river may become impassable there DH usually gets bus at 4:50 and is home by 5:20 - at 5:10 he had travelled one bus stop and still isn't home

OOH! Can I plagarise this for our ongoing battle? Please? Pretty Please? Grovel .... Beg .... Sorry to 'borrow' your thread Smiley

OK - from a previous career ... It may be that it is just a belt and braces affair It may be that there is no obvious tumour left but they want to make doubly sure They may want to treat the local lymph glands - like when you get a sore throat and your glands swell up sometimes there may be a couple of cells in the local glands that they can't see so they want to zap them to be on the safe side! It may be that the type of tumour that was removed is known as one that is best treated - from years of experience - by surgery and chemo to prevent any recurrence These are the most likely reasons - hope it helps <'> <'> <'>

A suggestion of a couple of books to help understand AS and teenagers... Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence Martian in the Playground: Understanding the Schoolchild with Asperger's Syndrome Asperger Syndrome, the Universe and Everything

OK - another course of action - fight the whole gamut now by saying that you feel that he needs a specialist placement ... or have you already agreed the school (oops!) June is waaayyyyyy too late to sort out next year's placement ... how on earth will you arrange transition to a new placement for September when you may not even have agreed the placement ... I'd check with IPSEA but possibly write to the LEA with your concerns about both the finalised statement and that fact that you no longer feel that this is the best placement for him - have a meeting about it and then take the whole kit and kaboodle off to tribunal in one go! Feel free to ignore

Smiley - I know just how you feel - it's an unending battle BUT Just think how much you may get sorted out about his general needs and provision of resources for him at mainstream from the tribunal ... ... which will then feed into his ASD placement - so you can have a go at half the battle now and then the rest later ... Just re-read this and don't know if that is a comforting thought or not!!!!! You've either got to or <'> <'> <'> <'>

My word! Have to change your name to Dr Doolittle instead of Frangipani

Hi Suze - thanks for the explanation Ben on to the LEA officer this afternoon and that seems to be basically what they want to do - combine J's hours with those of another student ... they couldn't answer what would happen if there wasn't another suitable student or if that student left the school for some reason There are 2 places a year 'in' the unit for ASD children in our LEA but J won't be one of those but it is to be made available as a 'place for ASD children with recreational/relaxing resources' but J wouldn't be able to take a friend along and most times prefers to be in the thick of the other children - where problems could easily arise (and do at the moment ) Arranged to go and see the unit next week ... meeting to discuss the provision after that

Thanks all - going to come out They have already acted illegally by pre-emting the recommendations of the school after the annual review ... wait till they see my notes from the meeting!!!!

I think we will be going straight to the solicitors rec by IPSEA when we faced the judicial review last Sept - costly but ... replace the car less often and cut down on hols - it's worth it. Thanks

I don't think we're going to be accepting many of their proposals Nellie - that's an important point you've made there. Thanks Hmm - so this may be how the school work things but this is after the statement is written and is down to the school management ... at least that's how I see this bit of the toolkit ... Thanks for that

OK - in the LEA's pre-emptive strike at the annual review the proposed changes to the statement include this ... OK - I assume they mean another child with statemented hours ... I gather there are 6 children with ASD going to this secondary in Sept. What happens if there isn't another child with statemented hours to 'consolidate' the support? What happens if the other child then encroaches on XX's support (I expect the other parents would feel the same too!) XX doesn't need support velcroed to him but is off in a land of his own if left to his own devices so someone needs to keep a watching brief... Anyone know much about this - can they put this in a statement????

Took mine down this morning ... been too busy getting ready for the annual review

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There probably is! - waiting for the solicitor recommended by IPSEA on our last outing against the LEA to ring me. We did a parental thingy! Basically been bypassed - oh well - roll on Feb 15th when we can apply to the tribunal!

Got to the annual review meeting today to be presented by the LEA with their propsed amendments to J's statement for transition - prior to any discussion taking place !!!!!!!!!!!! Basically they want to: cut his support by 2 hours make 3 hours of it subject to him approaching the LSA in the unit/resource (mainstream school with unit) review his support after the first half term in discussion with J, his teachers and his LSA. (Wot no chance of an appeal by parents to tribunal then!!!!) J will just say "I don't want anyone ... " They tried to make out that the unit will provide 12.5 hours of support for J - problem is that he has to choose to go there and he will want to be in the thick of things trying to play football etc and 'socialising' - not in the unit - as pointed out by our private EP I only once - too We refused to discuss the document, apart from the proposed targets for the next review period, as we haven't even seen the unit (newly built) so how on earth can we comment on it!!!!

LOL - we are facing this tomorrow but to add hours for transition to secondary - what Kathryn has said is correct ... the statement can be amended after the review. Make sure that you state at the review that you want the statement amended to show the amount of support that your child receives at present ... make sure that this request is included in the school's report that they send to the LEA (ask for it to be amended if it hasn't been recorded) http://www.ipsea.org.uk/caselaw.htm#Pittick It seems to me that you need to ask the LEA to specify all the provision that DS2 is to receive, including the school support, in Part 3 ... And here's a good quote to hit them with from the SEN Code of Practice: (para 8:34) "the second sub-section (that is the part headed Special Educational Provision to meet needs and objectives) should specify all the educational provision the LEA consider appropriate for all the learning difficulties identified in part 2, even where some of the provision will be made by direct intervention on the part of the authority and some of it will be made by the child's school from within its own resources, and some may be made by the health authority" It's up to the school to sort it out if they reckon that they cannot continue to supply this amount of support ... it's not your problem ... BUT, by having it included in the statement, if the school really can't supply this support then the LEA will have to cough up! The LEA obviously won't want to do this as they probably know this part of the law and, again, Kathryn is correct that you have no right of appeal if they refuse to amend the statement. HOWEVER - there are then 2 routes open to you ... 1) ask for a reassessment but then you are into the 26 weeks before anything gets done ... more if you end up going to appeal OR 2) you can ask for a judicial review on the grounds of illegality, eg a statute places a duty on a public authority and that duty has not been carried out. This is quicker as the appeal for a review has to be placed within 3 months of the 'illegality'. If you want to go this route I suggest contacting IPSEA - they can recommend a solicitor who specialises in this stuff (!) and it is possible to get legal aid on behalf of the child to fund the legal side. Hope this helps ... [Do you know I was just moaning to a friend about all the hassles we've undergone with our LEA but it comes in handy sometimes!!!]

I assume you mean 06! - Ok you need to emphasise the reasons for each of these exclusions and why they are related to his social disability ... IPSEA has an excellent section on this ... http://www.ipsea.org.uk/exclusion-support-sheets.htm - the school will be in trouble if they are excluding him for a reason related to his disability and you can argue that he needs more support in order to avoid this situation ... I've PM'd you with a link to our original parental views - anonimised - that may help you ...

Don't know if you've come across this - there's all sorts of info on there ... http://www.specialabilities.co.uk/

Two excellent books I have autism...what's that? Author: Kate Doherty, Paddy McNally and Eileen Sherrard http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=425&a=4971 and My brother is different: a book for young children who have brothers and sisters with autism Author: Louise Gorrod ISBN: 1 899280 50 2 http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=425&a=4986

Found this by accident when looking for something else http://teach.newport.ac.uk/sen/sen200607/MAsenLaw.html

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Have you signed up to "Every Disabled Child Matters" ? http://www.edcm.org.uk/Page.asp