Can I use this as evidence?

[stressedmumto2]

My child has been out of school for what feels like forever and the LEA have tried backing me into putting him into an EBD school.

 

He's now attending a mainstream for 2 hrs per day but the LEA have said his education is not sustainable in a mainstream school. We now have the final statement with the ebd school written on it. I am going tofight themn for a place at a residential school. The EBD school they want to send him to use alot of restraint on children which would scare my child to bits and when he has been restrained in the past before it makes him go even more mental so there is no way I want him going to a school where I knew if he was reluctant to go he would become restrained every time.

 

I know of a few other parents whose children go to this particular school and one parent has given me a copy of her sons statement which shows how many incidents there were and how many times he had been restrained.

 

A piece from the statement...........

 

Since ................, (name) has been involved in 19 serious incidents, five of which required "mild" physical intervention stratergies to ensure his safety. 18 of these events occured in the first month. These incidents have decreased in direct response to his increasing awareness that adults have firm, consistent boundaries for appropiate behaviour and that challenging these boundaries can have consequences for him.

 

With the permision of his mother would I be able to use evidence like this at tribunal why I do not want my child to go there. I think they use restraint to easily and there are a thousand other reasons why I do not want son to go there but I now need to get my evidence.

 

These parents who are friends of mine allowed their children to go there with the LEA bull ###### story that it is a revolving door and the children will get intergrated into mainstream, so far there is no eveidence of it with the younger ones who leave a nice room within a small building to move upto the school after a year or two no proof of them going back to mainstream, even these parents are saying they do not want their children going there, arghhhhhhh

[madme]

To be honest Im not sure how the tribunal would treat this evidence. I suggest if you havent already contact IPSEA for some support. What are the EBD's school views on your son going there ? To win at tribunal you will need lots of evidence about why that school would be unsuitable and why your son needs the other school. Does he have a current pschologist or psychiatrist? I found my sons very helpful in writing letters as to what type of placement and why. LEas will ignore but the tribunal shouldnt. Hope yo win your fight.

[stressedmumto2]

Hi madme, thanks for the reply.

 

the LEA are naming this school as they say it is the school which best meets his needs. He has a dx of severe adhd/hyperkinetic, ODD and traits of ASD however the LEA have kept that bit off.

 

Our local paed has wrote a letter in which I think he supports residential but he's not actually put it on word, he did tell me he would contact the LEA by phone the last time I went to see him but I do not know if he definatly did. The letter even though it has not been written is leading towards what can be done to bring about a change.

 

The paed we visited in london for dx said he is a very high risk child, she also supports residential but never put it in letter although again she points towards it.

 

I am going to see my gp this week who supports residential so I am going to ask her to write a letter.

 

Is it worth me going back to our local paed now to see if he can do another letter. I think if he realised that they were wanting son to go to the local school he to would be agains it as it is so wrong for my child.

[CarerQuie]

You need their opinion in writing.I don't think that you would get anywhere using the way someone else is treated as evidence for why the placement is not right for your child.xx

[Kazzen161]

In fact, it could be used as evidence FOR the school - as the need for restraint has decreased now firm boundaries are in place, etc.

 

You could ask the EBD school how many exclusions (temporary and permanent) they have had over the past two years, how many times they have had to use restraint over the past two years, and how many children have been successfully re-integrated into mainstream school over the past x years.

 

It is also useful to look at the KS SAT's results, the GCSE results, and find out where the Yr 11's go on to.

 

Look at their Ofsted too.

 

The more evidence you have that the school is inappropriate, the more chance you have of winning. I looked at how each school coudl meet the educational, social, emotional and behavioural needs of my child.

 

Unless you can argue for the need for a 24 hour curriculum, it is hard to argue for residential (unless SS is involved). You can argue that X school is more appropriate (and it just happens to be residential).

 

I found the ACE "Preparing for Tribunal" handbook useful in putting my argument together.

 

Karen

[madme]

Do get the peads advice in writing. IMO EBD and adhd are different but I understand that lots of leas try and put them together. If the statement doesnt mention the asd then when you appeal do seek that to be added in. Have you drafted your appeal yet? Time flies quickly. You dont need to get all your evidence together just tolodge the appeal but it does give you a time frame to tell anyone when you are collating your evidence to be lodged on exchange of evidence. You say asd traits. We had that in the beginning and we pushed for clarification and later got the dx of aspergers and the ODD was removed. My son also has a dx of hyperkinetic disorder. I know of a family who argued for residential because of the impact on the sibling and got it without any SS involvement but that was quite a while ago. Do contact ipsea. The ace bookis excellent. Good luck.

[stressedmumto2]

Hi, thanks again for replys. Can't find info anywhere on exclusions for LEA EBD school, I've e-mailed the school and lea and surprise surprise they haven't e-mailed back. The last inspection was back in 2004 and it had 7 exclusions. I've already digged out some of the info.

 

We went to london to get the dx we have as we already had dx of adhd but local paed said there were signs of AS but the panel concluded he didn't meet the criteria. The paed we seen in london couldn't do any assessment as son wouldn't co-operate but from behaviours he displayed and what I had told her she said he had social and emotional impairment of autistic spectrum disorder. I am going to argue to at least get that dx on paper. She has done two letters saying of his difficulties and the amount of support he will need so hopefully that may help.

 

 

Social services are involved but they say in meetings that they can't support residential because I cope well with him and apply stratergies. They offer us 9 hours respite a week, due to son still being out of education but have said when he starts full time schoool it may be slowly withdrawn. That is when allhell will break lose especially if he hasn't got something to look forward to in the afternoon.