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Some advice please. My son was finally diagnosed a year ago with Asperger's and 2 years prior to that with dyslexia. It has been a long hard road but with being very organized and pushy we managed to get a Statement ready for him to start a new school in Sept. and were given almost everything we had asked for including him repeating Year 10 so that he would be able to get his GCSEs. I did not feel that repeating a year would be too traumatic as he has an end of Aug birthday anyway. It was a scramble to get everything in place for Sept especially since we were abroad for 3 weeks in Aug. and doing a great deal of the finalizing online. In the process, I was told that the school we had requested was full for Year 10 with a short waiting list but that a new special school for ASD was opening attached to a secondary school which was on the same site. So new that the building works were not scheduled to be finished until a couple of weeks after school started and we would have to start late. In fact they have only just been completed but are fantastic and the staff are absolutely brilliant, cooperative and I cannot say enough good things about it. We did know that, unfortunately, the school was going to be a long drive away-at least twice the travel time of the school we had chosen and 4 times the nearest school which we were told was likely to be the only other option for us. The down side of the nearest school was that GCSE work starts in Year 9 and he already knew quite a few students there who I am quite sure would have teased him about being in Year 9 classes instead of Year 11. So we chose the new school. What they did not tell us was that GCSEs in the new school also start in Year 9 and we did not find this out until we had already agreed to the Statement having this new school as the named school. OK, so we have been working with this and B has been doing very well except that he has objected strenuously to being in classes with Year 9s. I know that this is a pride thing and he feels "demoted" as age and Year is so important to him and he sees all his old friends getting ready to move on at the end of Year 11. He also is tired of travelling 45-50 min each way every day to get to school and not being able to have friends home after school since they all live so far away. As a result he has been refusing to go at all. Today I had a meeting with the most wonderful head teacher who works so hard to make sure the children are all happy and thriving and is trying to get everything organized that I suggest might help. And I think we might get him back to school. BUT during the meeting I realized that at this secondary school to which his school is attached, starting GCSEs in Year 9 means that they are studied over 3 full years with no option to take them early if you are ready. Which means that B has effectively been moved back 2 years not 1 and will finish GCSEs when he is 17 and will turn 18 just before the next school year. Which means that he will not be entitled to LEA funding to attend the school for 6th Form and A-levels. You cannot imagine the shock I felt when I was told this. Everything we have been working towards is liable to be undone when B realizes that he is going to have to go to school for 2 extra years to get the same qualifications. He hates school and I know that the idea that he will have to continue after 18 just to get A levels will mean he will not go at all. He is so bright and with the right support A levels should be easily attainable. I am so angry and feel like we have been duped into agreeing to this school rather than the one we wanted with the end result that he will not be able to continue on to get A levels with appropriate support if he chooses to do them. Is there anything that we can do about this? Or is it too late now?