lisa

ASD is a wide spectrum and there are many ASD 'special needs' kids in school who don't get any help at all, so to refuse Kaz's son a place because 'we have an ASD child already and couldn't cope with another one' is in my opinion discrimination. Every child is different. This scout leader hasn't even met the child and doesn't want to give him a chance. Had she met him before refusing she may have been pleasantly surprised and welcomed him with open arms, but as soon as she heard 'AS' she didn't want to know. A fairer option would have been to suggest a trial to see how it worked out and if they felt they couldn't cope, discuss alternative options to include him eg. parent, relative, friend staying to support him. It's wrong to refuse point blank to even entertain the idea. It goes against the whole ethos of the scouting movement. Thankfully, I don't think this is the norm and the majority of scout leaders welcome kids of all shape, size, colour and creed, disabled or not. My son went through beavers and cubs and they were fantastic. It was a very positive and enjoyable experience which every child should have the opportunity to experience. He was fully included on all trips and camps, they got to know him as a person and were aware of his difficulties and oddities and made allowances accordingly. They didn't need any additional helpers, just awareness and a bit of understanding. In fact they were very glad to have him in their pack when they won the district cub quiz four years on the trot!!!! Perhaps this scout leader needs reminding that to have a child with special needs in your pack isn't always hard work, it can be very rewarding too.

My son, AS, 13, narrowly avoided detention last week, thankfully saved by a very understanding teacher!! The class were being noisy and disruptive (not J), the teacher was getting quite cross and having a go. He was telling them off about the standard of their work and said 'I don't know why I bother marking your work'. My J puts his hand up and says 'because it's your job, that's what you get paid for'!!!! He was totally serious and couldn't understand what was wrong with saying that, luckily he has a good relationship with most of his teachers (will quite happily chat to the headmaster or teachers just as if he's an adult) and they're all aware of his AS and make exceptions. Despite his form tutor and me both trying to explain to him that the teacher didn't want an answer, it was a rhetorical question, he still doesn't understand and can't see the problem. It's all very black and white to him, he asked, I answered, that is what he gets paid for, so what's rude about that??? Anyone got any tips on how to explain this one a bit better?

UPDATE I've spoken to the LEA again, who have spoken to the school. The school are now saying this is only a morning course, not all day which is contrary to the letter they sent me. Apparently they didn't realise!!! They booked it !!! And they told me they were paying the extra wages to the LSA on top of the hours she gets paid for supporting L (5 hrs). They've told the LEA that my daughters LSA will now be supporting her as usual in the afternoon. This means it'd be 2 hrs and 20 minutes of Ls time she'll lose instead of 5 hrs. The LEA have said that they've discussed it and feel as the course is specifically to benefit L they think it'd be acceptable for the school not to cover these 2hrs 20mins, so have decided to back the school's decision. Now I'm not sure what to do. I still haven't managed to speak to the SENCO. She hasn't returned my call. I know the law is on my side but now I've calmed down a bit am thinking is it worth getting a solicitor involved or should I just write to the school expressing all my greviences and in effect let them get away with it this time but perhaps think twice about trying it again because of the fuss I've caused. What does everyone think?

When will this whole country wake up??! It's disgraceful what's happening to our kids. <'> <'> <'> <'>

Thanks Suze. We've already checked out all the schools and decided where she'll probably go. There really is no choice at all for us apart from mainstream. There's an ASD unit in one secondary in the borough which opened last year but the LEA really couldn't have chosen a worse school to put the unit if they tried. It's in the worst area in the borough, it's absolutely huge, about 1300 kids, gets 20% A-C grade GCSEs and all the kids look and act like Catherine Tates Lauren. One AS pupil got stabbed by another child in the school, really inspires confidence!! The LEA are also using it to dump all the low functioning autistic secondary age kids from the special school. L wouldn't stand a chance of getting in (not that I'd want her to go) when there are a lot of AS kids with 17 and 20 hrs, even full time support who the LEA are saying don't qualify because they're too high functioning!!!!!!! Absolute madness!!!! She has her annual review in 3 weeks. Being so close to the tribunals decision the LEA are not going to give her anything else. We're going to try her in secondary but if it doesn't work out I've already decided that I won't leave her to struggle and will take her out altogether to home school her. It's just not fair. We may even take her out at the end of this year. I'm fed up with fighting, I know she'd be much happier and less stressed at home. We've done all we can, gone through 2 tribunals, we haven't got the money to take her case to the high court. We could re-mortgage the house, go through the whole lot and either get nothing or a little bit more support which probably won't even be enough to work anyway so what's the point. The government pays for the tribunals, they pay for the LEA, they pay for the school, everyone involved works for the government apart from us. Sorry to sound so gloomy. We only heard yesterday so still feeling very upset, keep crying all the time. I need to try to get things into perspective. I have 3 beautiful, healthy kids.

Can you believe Lord Adonis is saying it's free to go to tribunal!!! What a joke!! We spent over �5,000 on assessments for our tribunal, we couldn't really afford a solicitor as well so we decided to do it ourselves. I thought we had a very good case, plus she hadn't made any progress academically in all 3 core subjects in the year she'd had her statement. No progress whatsoever in reading and maths for 2 years. What could be plainer? What conclusion did the tribunal come to? 13 hrs support = no progress - conclusion = she doesn't need any more help Tribunals are such an emotional rollercoaster <'> <'> Try to stay strong. Does she have much experience of tribunals? Is the Ed Psych coming to the tribunal as well? If I remember rightly from earlier posts I think you said your Ed Psych was really good. Does he has a lot of experience at tribunals working with his wife as a team? It could be an advantage. You're in an awkward position, if you decide not to have the wife you may lose the husband. Good Luck whatever you decide.

Thanks everyone. Feels a bit like the last straw at the moment. It arrived on the doormat with my birthday cards (birthday today), lovely birthday present and perfect timing. I was already feeling mega stressed. If you saw my other post, we got a letter from school yesterday telling me they're not going to cover her LSA while she goes on a training course. Basically the school are taking it upon themselves to reduce the hours in her statement for the next five weeks. On top of that I found out that school haven't been doing the daily 20 minute 1:1 out of class literacy program either, which is a requirement of her statement. L said yesterday, 'oh, we haven't been doing that for ages'. Phoned school and the LEA today threatening legal action which I don't think went down too well. Not sure what we're doing about the statement yet. I don't think we stand much chance appealing the SENDIST decision. I think I need a bit of time to think about where to go from here. Thanks again. Lisa

I'm so fed up with the whole stupid system. My daughter has AS, Dyslexia, ADD and Mears Irlen Syndrome. The LEA have given her 13 hours LSA time. She's not coping at all and making no academic progress. We had reports stating she needed 20 hours support and another report from the NHS stating if she didn't receive significant support she's at danger of not coping in a mainstream setting. She hasn't made any progress in 2 core subjects in the past 2 years yet the tribunal decided, because the school said so, that she didn't need additional hours and was coping fine. I'm gutted. She's year 5 and there's no way on earth she's going to cope in secondary with 13 hours. It's utterly ridiculous. We've done everything we possibly could but all anyone cares about is money. They don't care if she's self harming or threatening to kill herself as long as they don't have to pay. All that time and hard work for nothing.

This course is run by ASD Outreach an LEA team and they only run them a couple of times a year, over a six week period, of one day a week so the school really don't have the option of the LSA attending at any other time. I'm really happy for her LSA to go on this course, she doesn't really understand ASD at the moment so hopefully we'll see some benefits from this. I've managed to get through to IPSEA and they confirmed that legally the school have an obligation to cover her support for the hours her LSA is on the course, this is a planned absence, it's not as if the LSA has suddenly phoned in sick and they're having trouble finding cover. Her statement says she requires "13 hours 1:1 LSA support per week" not 13 hours LSA support from Mrs X and if she's on a training course don't bother!! I'm going to phone school today and see what the reaction is. If they still refuse to cover her support, I'm quite prepared to keep L off school every Tuesday until the LSA is back and take legal action. In the past I have let them get away with a few hours here and there or the odd day, there's other stuff in her statement that they don't do and I don't make a fuss about it and insist it's done. L's going on school journey next month and won't get her 13 hours cover that week, understandable it could be difficult to arrange, but that's 13 hours the school get for L from the LEA which they won't have to pay for (all the LSA's at our school work on contracts, not as permanent staff so they're well within their rights to tell her LSA they don't need her that week and they do do this because I have quite a few friends who are LSAs at the school!). Next year all well and good she'll go again on school journey, another 13 hours. More than enough to use to cover a supply LSA for this training course. I don't think I'm an unreasonable person and feel the school are starting to take advantage now. I think I need to nip this in the bud. I'll let you know how I get on.

My daughter has a statement with 13 hours 1:1 support per week. The school have sent a letter today telling me that L's LSA will be going on a training course on ASD every Tuesday for the next 5 weeks. They then go on to say that they have made the decision that they will not be covering her hours on that day out of their own resources. L is normally supported for 5 out of her 13 hours on Tuesdays, it's her only full day. I don't think this is fair. She's had her statement since October 2006 and the school advertised in the local press for an LSA for her. In my opinion they should have either recruited someone with experience of ASD or paid out of their own budget for her to receive training, not taken it out of the hours in my daughters statement. I'm pleased that this LSA is to finally receive some training but do you think I'm being unreasonable to expect the school to cover her LSA time? Is it legal for them to reduce this support in her statement for the next 5 weeks? She barely copes in my opinion as it is.

My daughter was awarded high rate care and low mobility on reconsideration after being turned down initially.

In a way it's good the school are trying to get a statement for your son and considering his attainment perhaps they feel this is the only way they can do it. It should work if the EP and school are pushing for it. I know it's hard at the moment and probably quite worrying too but hang in there. Hopefully he will get his statement and things will calm down. The school are probably just waiting for any excuse to exclude or exaggerate behaviour in their quest for a statement, upsetting, but better than denying all his difficulties because they're afraid they're going to have to pay to support him themselves. We've had the denial and it's like banging your head against a brick wall. Things are much better now we have a new SENCO, but the old SENCO seemed to make it her mission to stop us getting a statement for both of our AS kids. We were told time and again 'they seem fine to me' and 'no problems'. I could easily have hit her on many occasions and I'm one of the most placid people you could ever meet. The school were also very underhand in our case too. I'm so cynical now and don't trust the school or LEA one little bit.

How did you find out how many appeals your LEA had won/lost?

I don't think they're asking you to write a letter supporting the exclusion but a letter supporting the request for statutory assessment. I would write and say what you feel his needs are and why you think he needs 1:1 support. Many LEAs will want to know that the school have done everything in their power from their own resources before they statement a child. If you start saying the school could be doing more or handle your son better (which I'm not saying you were going to do even if you think it!) the LEA will try not to give a statement and take the 'wait and see' attitude after the school have done all they can. The fact the LEA Ed Psych has recommended the school apply for statutory assessment is a very good sign. Lisa

madme where do you find the info on the LEA's stats at tribunal? I'd love to see how our LEA fare.

tsmom Doesn't it make you mad what we have to go through? One minute they're saying they won't even assess and the next giving you 25 hrs, where's the sense in that. I reckon they probably get away with it the majority of the time too. Lisa

I think personally I'd be wary of subpeona-ing a witness. You want them to be on your side and back you up, if they don't want to be there and you force them, they may not be as helpful as you wish. Also, see what IPSEA say. They may think her report will be enough.

I was told by Welfare Rights to apply for DLA and Carer's Allowance at the same time. Then what happens is you get turned down for Carers because that's normally a quicker process than DLA but then if you get DLA there's a number to phone Carers who will then backdate your claim to when you first applied. If that makes sense??? So, in short, you need to apply for Carers Allowance now if you haven't already. Hopefully you'll be sucessful with the DLA claim appeal. You'll then qualify for extra Child Tax Credits which again should be backdated to when you first applied for DLA as long as you inform CTC as soon as you get your DLA letter. Although CTC will tell you that they can only backdate for 3 months, this isn't correct because it's not your fault DLA have taken their time making the decision and you've had to appeal to get what your child is entitled to. This is what happened to us with CTC. Although I didn't have to appeal to DLA, they did take longer than 3 months to process my daughters claim. Welfare Rights took it up with CTC on my behalf and I got the extra backdated money and an apology letter from CTC.

Don't panic. It would help if someone from IPSEA came with you but if they can't they will still help you to prepare your case and decide what you need to say on the day. My personal opinion is that the panel have pretty much made up their minds from the case statements and evidence before the hearing. We've been twice and each time the chair decided the agenda and led the questions. The main thing is be prepared. I wrote the page numbers of all the reports or evidence I may need to refer to in the case statement so I didn't fumble around and panic if nervous. Briefly write down all the issues and your evidence to back it up to use as your notes, quote from reports with the relevant page numbers so you can refer to it. ie. so that if the LEA comes out with a downright lie (as I'm sure they will!), you can reply, but Mr x says in his report dated ....., page number ... IYSWIM so that everyone can then turn to that page to verify what you're saying. I put my notes under headings ie. anything relating to dyslexia, anything relating to stress and anxiety that sort of thing. I found this quite useful as my notes weren't all over the place and I knew exactly where to look to find answers to any questions if I wasn't sure. In reality I hardly used the notes at all because I'd been awake god knows how many nights going through it in my head over and over and pretty much knew it by heart. Write yourself a short 'summing up' speech. A bit like on telly when the lawyer addresses the jury with the facts of their case. At the end, both times the chair asked both us and the LEA if we would like to do this. IPSEA will help you with this. Also, not all panels like it when solicitors and IPSEA are 'interferring'. At our first tribunal the chair seemed almost hostile to our IPSEA rep. So don't worry too much, you have all your evidence and the Ed Psych as a witness. You can only do the best you can and hope at the end of the day justice prevails. Good Luck. Lisa

Fantastic!!

We've got it on PC. If you live in London, CENMAC may be able to supply your son with an Alphasmart. http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/accounts/Virtual%...bout%20us/menu/ Lisa

For typing programs it depends how old your son is. We found 'Typing with Timon and Pumba' one of the best for primary, the games were fun and it taught a very good way to touch type using the correct fingers and encouraged you not to look at your hands. Each type you completed a 'Rafiki's Challenge' it uplocked a new game. My sons favourite was spitting grape pips at bugs, you had to type the correct letter quickly to hit the bugs. I'm not sure if it works on XP as it's quite an old game. For secondary, my son's now 13, and he loves 'Typing of the Dead', that's if you can get hold of an old copy on ebay. You can't buy it anymore in the shops. It's just like the arcade game, House of the Dead where you have to shoot the zombies, but you have to type the words as quickly as you can to fire at the zombie before it gets you. Very, very cool typing game. Lisa

Yes you can do this. I've been thinking about it for awhile for my daughter and have checked it out with the LEA. To make the situation very clear, I'd send a letter de-registering your son from his current school and then send another letter to the LEA explaining what you're doing and that you still require the secondary school place from September. As Canopus said, primary and secondary registration are completely seperate. Presumably you've already filled in your form accepting his place at secondary so unless the school are informed by you otherwise, he'll be on the register in September. Lisa

Before you alert the SALT or LEA to this perhaps you should wait until you have his amended review statement. The LEA may not be aware and may be leaving the SALT provision as is, but if you highlight that SALT are saying they're reducing his support they may write it into his statement to cover themselves. Equally if you start saying to SALT that they must provide the provision in his statement until it's changed they may get on to the LEA and ask them to amend it following the review. Once you have the amended statement, whatever SALT provision is in it must be provided. Then you can start the process of ensuring he actually gets his statemented provision. Lisa

We have this problem too. My daughter (9) describes herself as an 'avid collector'!! She wants to keep all manner of old tat. If we change anything in the house she has to keep a bit, we're doing the bathroom at the moment and she wants to keep a bit of old tile, a bit of the mirror and some old wallpaper. She gathers so many sticks (more like logs at times!!), shells and leaves which she insists on keeping. I think she spends the whole playtime at school 'gathering'. She comes home with bits of shiny paper, paper clips, bottle tops, stones, bits of plastic the list is endless and it all goes in her bedroom. On the rare occasion she was invited to a party she came home with a black bin liner filled with ripped wrapping paper from her friends presents, the bashed up pinata which she patched up and took to bed for a week and the empty birthday cake box! She told the mum she was an 'arts and crafts girl'. I swear that girl will grow up to be a bag lady!!! She says she feels comfortable when her bedroom is messy. She's even put a sign on the door saying 'I like my room messy so don't clean it, STAY AWAY'. We pretty much leave her to it and try to ciphen off bits and pieces where we can. I go in there twice a week and clean it but just put all the tat in stacker boxes under her bed or in her cupboard so it's not all over the floor, I can't stand it, and she's pretty much accepted that this is going to happen every Monday and Thursday. Although I must admit sometimes I wonder why I bothered when by the end of the day she's dragged it all out of the cupboard again but at least I know the floor is clean underneath! Normally, once a year or when it gets too much I go in when she's at school, give it a real good blitz and get rid of loads of stuff, blame it on our cleaner (who she doesn't normally see because she comes when L's at school) and feign innocent surprise. I reassure her I'll speak to the cleaner and tell her not to do it again, then wait for the fall out. I find it's better to get one huge meltdown and maybe a couple of cross days than everyday over a sweet wrapper or bit of plastic. I know this wouldn't work for everyone, she's only 9 at the moment, not sure I'll get away with it when she's 14.