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You mean she is intending to leave education in July - in that case I would say it is not worth it. A diagnosis of Autism doesn't bring with it any particular provision or therapy that would automatically help your daughter, so there would need to be a proper multi-disciplinary assessment - it would be highly unlikely that that could be completed in time to have a statement in place before July. However if you think they are failing you can go into the annual review and ask for changes in the statement or provision to reflect those failings, but again hardly time now before July

There is a time limit of 40 days in which they should respond (for a Subject Access Request) - unfortunately there is very little that you can do if they exceed it. I think FOI is 20 working days - but I am not sure about that one. Also unless you explicitly mention that it is a Subject Access Request under the DPA they could say that they didn't interpret it as such (and in fact that may well be true). Once the 40 days have passed I would suggest that you send a follow up letter - addressed to the "Data Controller" pointing out that they have exceeded the statutory timescale and requesting them to reply with 7 days. You can go to court to enforce the SAR, or complain to the ICO but both are slow processes and if you can't prove when you sent the request then you won't get too far - it is best to send such requests by special delivery.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Having been through it I would advise people to make the application for assessment themselves rather than relying on the school to do it. As a parent all you have to do is write a short letter to the LA and then they have the responsibility of getting all the information together, and there are strict timescales they need to adhere to. Letting our school do that for us cost as at least 6 months. As am I sure you are aware a statement is essential if you need additional support because it is the only way that support with be funded. Again you probably know this already - but don't make the mistake of thinking the either the school or the LA have your son's interests at heart. They don't (at least not above their own) and also don't think that they or any "experts" know what is best for your son - it is shocking how inappropriate some of the advice we have had from so-called experts. Make sure you listen to the opinion of people from the other side (our side) - other parents, the independent charities and advice lines - and forums like this Even advice from other parents of ASD children needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Our son is totally different from any other ASD child I've heard about - and I am sure yours is too, and what may be great advice for one child might be totally wrong for another.

Firstly this is not a Freedom Of Information request - it is a Data Subject Access Request made under the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Get the name wrong and it may well end up in the wrong department. Each organisation will have a Data Controller who is responsible for responding to SAR - so it would be normal to have to apply separately to the School, the LA and the NHS (not sure if you can cover all the NHS in a single request). From our experience the LA is pretty poor at responding TBH I am not sure that they have much information that would be useful - and to get the information from the school (who should have the most useful info) it is usually better just to go to the office / SENCO and ask for a copy without all the pain of the SAR.

I'm afraid there is not an easy answer - it seems that bright ASD children are some of the hardest to place. Our son (much younger) combines a high IQ with severe difficulties caused by ASD. If he doesn't have a statement it is probably worth trying for one - but it make take so long as to be little practical good. Dropping back a year might make sense (although I gather that schools are reluctant to do this) but not much point unless he will do better next time round - so unless he gets more support or moves to a different school. There are a number of schools around that cater for children who struggle to achieve in mainstream, but who don't necessarily have a diagnosis. These tend to be smaller and more understanding than mainstream and I know that ASD/Dyslexic children often do well there. Then there are specialist Dyslexia schools that also do reasonably well although I am not sure how good they are for an above average IQ. I am sorry to say that most ASD specific schools seem to be totally inappropriate for intelligent children (even those that claim to be Asperger Specialists). If you have the time it is well worth talking to, and going to see, a range of schools of all types. Just discussing things with people who are experts in that type of education can be very helpful in terms of demonstrating best practice and allowing you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each option.

You have my sympathy, I know from personal experience how difficult dealing with this can be - while our son has never been officially excluded there have been several occasions when we have had to pick him up early or it has been suggested that it is better if we don't take him in on any particular day. I presume with behaviour like that he is already on SAP? Worth setting up a meeting with SENCO and asking them what they are doing, or think they should be doing, about the situation. Also ask them what good they expect the exclusions to do - it seems to me that your child could regard them as a reward rather than a punishment. Although it may seem early, I would suggest that you consider asking the LA to make a statutory assessment. All that takes is a letter to the LA (do it yourself rather than asking the school to do so). Unfortunately that is likely to be a long drawn out process but the sooner you start the sooner you will get a statement if that is what is required. Do read up on the rules surrounding exclusions from school - this document looks well worth reading: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/exclusion%20from%201%20sep%202012%20guide%20for%20those%20with%20legal%20responsibilities%20in%20relation%20to%20exclusion%20june.pdf If the school's behaviour is significantly different then challenge them as to why that is. At this stage I would certainly insist on them following the letter of the law on notifications - make sure that you have written reasons for each exclusion and that you keep these filed away for future user (you will need them later). I don't know about your son's situation but from the fact that you are posting here I assume he is ASD or likely to be diagnosed as ASD? If so then the school are on very dodgy grounds excluding him. If you have the right to appeal to the governing body (and it sounds as if you do if this is the 3rd exclusion) then I would do so. Also you need to consider what you want for him. Do you want him to remain at that school or would you prefer him moved to another mainstream school. It may be worth looking around at the schools in your area, you will probably find that some are much better at coping with difficult children than others (in a mainstream setting). A school with experience of this sort of child can make all the difference.

I wasn't talking about any useless doughnut eaters - I was talking about the police. If you report it once - they are unlikely to do much. If it happens again then they may take it more seriously. The police take this sort of harassment much more seriously these days, and the equality act gives them a useful tool.

If you know their names why not call the police?

I'm not an expert of course but it sounds as if you are in a difficult situation. As I understand it if you want to get the LA to pay for the residential placement then it has to be on educational grounds. So not only does he need a "waking hours" care but also that there needs to be continuity of care across the day. I think that could be a very difficult case to win. The alternative approach would be to seek a more specialist placement in an ASD specific independent school that is residential only. It should be possible to make the case that his current school is not meeting his need and so he needs a more specialised placement. If that placement is only available in a residential school (as I think is likely to be the case) then that effectively bypasses the question. There are a number of organisations out there that provide a free helpline - try SOS!SEN or IPSEA - they will give you better advice than I can/

Interesting case - thanks. That is subtly different for the situation I was envisaging of provision within a maintained "special" school where the SEN provision is part of what the school provides rather than bought in on a per-pupil basis. Just shows what a minefield (nonsense) this all is.

Crazy isn't it. With or without the report the LA can't use a funding argument alone. The funding side says purely that if there are two adequate options then the LA can choose the cheaper (even if the more expensive is better and lead to better outcomes for the child). The rules are such that it would have to be an exceptional case to show that independent is cheaper in the terms the tribunal have to use. To win the independent vs maintained argument you have to demonstrate that the mainstream cannot meet his need. If everyone has agreed and you have that in writing then the tribunal can't put him there. In that case I would guess the LA aren't really go to try to win the argument. Either they are just stringing things out in order to save costs. or they may come up with an alternative nearer to the time. Of course by the time of the tribunal you should be able to show that he is not getting better where he is - that will be important

I would not recommend getting confrontational about it - the legal process is weighted pretty heavily in favour of the employer in all cases. If you go to a solicitor the levels of stress you will experience will vastly outweigh and possible benefits. They may well have broken the rules, but that does not always result in a good outcome for the (ex) employee The best advice is either to try to negotiate with your manager - pointing out that you have given up the other part time job - or possibly talk to his manager or the HR department (if these is one). The chances of this being successful are moderate at best but at least you will have everything resolved in a short period of time and you can get on.

Interesting - and not surprising - but it won't help at the tribunal I'm afraid. If a maintained place is available the tribunal have to take that as zero cost on the basis that it is being paid for anyway whether you are using it or not. So even if the LA places costs them £100k per pupil, and the independent cost £50k, the independent will be deemed to be more expensive. I think even the proposed changes to SEN provision don't go as far as letting you get direct payment for the basic cost of a school place.

I think you should certainly ask the LA to perform a statutory assessment. This is done by righting a very simple letter to the LA (there is a sample on the IPSEA site). When the parents' request the assessment then it is technically the LA's responsibility to gather the evidence. All you would need to do at this stage would be to write a couple of sides as to what you think his special educational needs are, and why they are not being met. If you download the SEN code of practice that should give you lots of ideas as to what areas may be special educational needs. . As you have only had IEPs for 6 months they LA is unlikely to agree to assess, let alone issue a statement. However I still think it is worth asking for assessment now for a couple of reasons. Firstly the very act of doing so should make the school take notice - the LA will want to ensure at least that the paperwork is up to date, so you may find that things get a little better. Secondly may LAs seem to have the policy of always rejecting the first request as a way of filtering out parents who are not serious. Thirdly even if they refuse to assess they are supposed still to describe his special educational needs and how they can be met in his current environment. Also beware that many LAs seem pretty much to discount/ignore parental evidence - your evidence only really becomes important if/when you get to the appeal stage.

Hi - welcome to the forum. I think it is highly unlikely that he is lashing out at people for no reason - it is just that we can't understand what his reasons are. A challenge with ASD children is first realising that they do think differently and they working out how they think and what causes them to lash out. Lashing out is almost always a reaction to some stress and anxiety, you need to work out what is causing the stress and work on that. Our son at that age was extremely sensitive to certain sounds (fans, toilet flushing, and the quiet click the TV makes when switching into standby). He can also get very anxious when being put into an unfamiliar situation (although that for us was when he was older than 3 1/2). At this age pretty much the only solution would be to identify the causes of stress/anxiety and eliminate them as much as possible. Also at this stage discipline over these issues is probably not the right idea either - it simply doesn't work and only makes the situation worse.

Surely even for the strongest and best supported of us tears are pretty much inevitable I would suggest that you don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that you are part of the problem - you aren't. Those that do (and teachers can be bad at this) are probably so far from understanding your son that you should treat what they say about anything with a lot of caution. Parenting an ASD child is very hard work and puts a lot of strain on the parents and other family members. There is support out there from the like of CAMHS and NAS - this can help a lot so don't disdain it if you think it helps you. However I would recommend that you go through CAMHS rather than your GP. They are more experienced in the problems of parenting and can provide more support than you are likely to get from your GP.

There is a lot of evidence that our son has problems that are related to sensory integration which we would like investigated. What is the usual route to getting an independent assessment in this area? Is this covered under OT or should we look for an assessment from an SI therapist separately?

I find that shocking, but perhaps not surprising. Our LA say they are setting up an EBD/HFA school and want us to consider it!!! If I were you I would certainly be trying to get my child out of there asap. There is a danger of "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs" here - as you are more advanced than we but you might consider You need to think seriously about why you lost the appeal. It seems an unsuitable school so are you really happy that both EP and solicitor represented your case well enough? Surely the EP should have been saying that there was no way he should belong with EBD children, or that the ethos of the school was inappropriate. If you want to try for the independent school again you need to consider whether you wouldn't be better with, say, a different EP. Our independent EP wrote a very good report, but we have already decided to use a different one for any tribunal as we don't think the first EP will put the case in the right way. I would certainly consider asking for him to be transfered back into mainstream, or to another maintained special school (even if out of borough) - that is a much easier tribunal to win. I might even consider taking him out of school all together - either getting him signed off sick or "home schooling". Has none of this come up during the observations done by any of the professionals? One of the most useful pieces of evidence we got was from someone from CAMHS who simply observed our son in school for a couple of hours and documented what she saw. Elementary really - but make sure you document every occurence. Take each incident up with school on and get a response from them, preferably in writing. Then take them to the head under the title of "bullying". If they don't respond positively then escalate - maybe even call the police in? Are there any other ASD children in the school? If so what are their experiences?

Just read your threads from around the time of the tribunal. It is worrying that the EP couldn't put up a good enough case to prevent him being sent to an EBD school - we may need to be making similar arguments in a few months time. I just don't see EBD and ASD mixing (I was having that very discussion over lunch with my sister who works at a SEN school). Another option is to try to find another maintained school just for Yr 6. The problem being that there just doesn't seem to be good provision for bright ASD children in KS2.

Sounds like a very difficult situation - what sort of school is he in now? If it weren't for your OH then it would seem to be better to hang on in there and have another go at the transition to Y7 - that process should kick off in about 6 months time and no other route via SENDIST is likely to get a result significantly faster If you lost the tribunal last time then they clearly thought that the placement was adequate, so there is no saying that presenting the same case for day placement would have been more successful. You need to consider why you lost and how to improve your case, or your presentation, for next time. Were you represented during the process and are you happy with the job they did? I think you case next time will be stronger from his current placement than having moved him - unless perhaps you can show that the present placement has broken down so funding him privately is the only alternative. One good thing - with fees at that level they clearly aren't sustainable so the LA can't wash their hands of him all together. To take the self-funding route you would have to do so with the understanding that there is no certainly that he could continue at that school in Y7 and you would have to consider the strong possibility that he would have to go back into the maintained sector for Y7 and you would need to appeal again from there towards the end of Y7 when you had sufficient evidence that they placement wasn't working.

I think once you start educating at your own expense you make getting back into LA-funded SEN provision very difficult. I am not sure whether they have an obligation to go through the same transition planning with children that are not LA funded If you can afford to consider a year of private education you can afford to get expert legal advice - I would certainly seek a professional opinion on this before taking any action. We have had similar thoughts about our son, but we think it is a high risk strategy. If we pay for an independent school (from Y5) and he gets on well tthere then there is no way we would want to take the risk of having to transfer him back to mainstream at Y7. Hard though it is to say, a poor Y5 & 6 in mainstream will only strengthen our hand for seeking an independent placement at Y7 (or even earlier), once we take him out of MS then it is very hard to demonstrate that he can't cope.

I don't believe that you have the right to appeal against a refusal to update the statement following an Emergency Review, as far as I am aware an emergency review is not covered either in the code of practice or the legislation. You probably need to request a reassessment - and you can appeal from a refusal to reassess. The problem with that is that it is a two stage process - you need to appeal the refusal to assess (5 months) and then would need to appeal the assessment(another 5 months).

That should dispel any lingering questions over her independence - just remember who pays her (ditto LA EPs and even Schools). She is correct that the OT assessment should have been done during the stat assessment - but it is the job of the LA to get that done. I can also understand why the LA want an NHS assessment as well - if nothing more than to get information on what the NHS can provide. It may be that submitting evidence of a substantial new need (such as OT) that was not considered during the initial assessment is really triggering a re-assessment rather than an normal review. However delaying of the process seems to be par for the course for most LAs and you can expect them to use any and every excuse either not to reassess or to delay it. If they are getting an NHS report done - and so delaying the process - it might be worth making a formal request for re-assessment of his needs as this will give you access to SENDDIST if they refuse to amend the statement.

I think we are looking to give our children the best chance of happiness in life. In the education of AS children it seems clear that they need both the academic teafching and more help than an NT child on life and social skills. When I have been looking at schools I have never asked whether they follow the NC, but rather what they offer in the way of GCSE courses and other skills. The schools I have liked best have offered a reasonable range of GCSE but at the same time have been flexible in how they are provided, and offered other options as well. I imagine, but I don't know, that they have not formally followed the NC and therefore have had more flexibility in what they teach. So I would look for a school that did offer the opportunity to do a range of GCSE but was flexible in following the capabilities and interests of the pupils. If you downplay the academic too much then you are in to the range of Autism/MLD schools which are a different proposition

My feeling would be that I would always want a professional to be arguing my case in front of a tribunal - but if I get an independent SALT report and ask the SALT to attend as a witness then I would not necessarily need a solicitor to make the points. Similarly if the issue is purely one of wooly wording then the tribunal should be able to tighten that up themselves without having it professionally argued.