transport to comprehensive school

[joybed]

My son has high functioning Autism and is currently in mainstream school, he is 11. He goes to a very caring, small primary school at the moment which is a CofE school and they are very keen on treating one another as equals, no bullying, help one another etc. Needless to say Marcus has coped reasonably well in this school but has had some problems, such as not able to pay attention in class, being rude and cheeky to teachers etc, classic Autism stuff. He is due to go to Comprehensive in September which will obviously be a very big school with lots of changes. The Autism team have put together a very good transition package, and the SENCO of the school appears very knowledgable and caring. However my biggest concern is how he will get to school. It is a 15 minute bus ride away (we currently walk to school), to catch the bus he has to cross avery busy road where HGVs drive past regularly. He has no road/ traffic awareness at all and is worrying about various scenarios, he has said he will run out into the road in front of traffic rather than miss the bus, I have tried to explain how dangerous this is but he just doesn,t understand and says he can,t face being in trouble for being late. I have explained this to the Autism services and have asked for transport but they won,t fund it saying they are trying to increase his independence. This I understand, but equally don,t want a knock on the door telling me is dead. I am also concerned about bullying. DH tells me I have to let him grow up, but I can see how much this is worrying him. We have had a deterioration in his behaviuor already and he is back to soiling. Have I got a right to push for transport. They have told me that what other parents do is get the bus with their ASD child for the first few weeks to make sure they are OK, but I have 2 3 year olds and work so this is not possible. Sorry for the long post but i want to know what my rights are.

[jb1964]

Hi,

 

Don't have any answers for you sorry. We've had similar problems with our daughter since starting comp. She's 13 and will not go on the school bus (it is 5 miles away) - I am so lucky now that my father has retired and he takes her back and forth to school and home to my parents house for lunch (they live near the school) - otherwise I really don't know what we'd have done - she'd probably be home tutored by now as I work full-time and therefore couldn't have taken her myself.

 

We did get offered for her to be picked up and dropped off (at the house) by the special needs mini-bus (from the unit attached to the school) - but she flatly refused - she doesn't want anyone to know she has ASD.

 

Hope you get some answers soon.

Take care,

Jb

[JsMum]

Hi I checked out your councils website and found nothing on exceptional circumstances appeal, so do ask your local council about this, I did find throw another council what this appeal does and have given you the link to read.

 

J has transport due to medical needs, so things like no road sence, anxieties around unfamilair places and people, and vulnerable due to learning and development disorders.

 

I agree with independant skills but I dont think that means putting the child in substantail risks by trying them out and if you feel your child needs transport to keep him safe then you should apply.

 

Here is what exceptional circumstances is

 

 

http://www.scotborders.gov.uk/life/educati...chool/3851.html

 

Good luck and hope you have something similair in your council.

 

JsMum

[pumpkinpie]

Whilst I understand the autusm service saying he needs to be independant this is not something that just happens - it needs to be supported.

I would write to them again asking for a staged approach as well as the school transport services dept. I think you have a good case especially with the medical decrease in his behaviour.

Bullying is a rela concern and if you look at the bbc website news(think on the education or disability 00ps BIT THERE IS AN ARTICLE ON 18 JUNE ABOUT BULLYING OF KIDS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES. I WOULD USE THIS as evidence as well.

[pumpkinpie]

Disabled children bullying claims

 

It is claimed many children with disabilities face a lonely summer

More than 90% of children with learning disabilities are bullied, according to a report from Enable Scotland.

The charity said most of these children faced a lonely summer holiday in their homes, afraid to venture out to the park or even go out in the street.

 

The UK-wide research, based on 564 children, 12% of whom were in Scotland, found that more than a third said telling an adult made no difference.

 

The study came as the charity launched a campaign to tackle the issue.

 

Norman Dunning, Enable chief executive, said the results showed a real need for action.

 

"It is unacceptable that so many children's lives are being made a misery and we need to do something about it," he said.

 

ENABLE RESEARCH

93% had been bullied

46% had been physically assaulted

31% had their possessions stolen

53% were bullied for more than two years

38% said telling an adult had no effect

 

"It's time for the bullying of children with learning disabilities to be taken as seriously as other forms of discrimination, such as racism and homophobia."

 

The research suggested that in more than half of the cases bullying had continued for two years or more.

 

Many of the children surveyed said they were afraid to go to the places where they had been bullied, such as school.

 

Some of the young people reported that it was not just other school children who bullied them, but parents and younger children had joined in, calling names and throwing stones.

 

Louise Hill, who suffered at the hands of bullies for years, said the problem had driven her to consider harming herself.

 

"Sometimes the parents joined in. For instance, I would walk down the street and the mums would call me names," she said.

 

"It wasn't just them, the five-year-olds started realising what their parents were doing and they would join in too, throwing stones. It was quite upsetting that I did sometimes feel like self harming myself."

 

The report's recommendations included a call for organisations that work with children to develop good practice in dealing with the problem.

 

It also suggested making information about bullying and how to deal with it more accessible to children with learning disabilities.

 

The launch of the Speak Up campaign coincides with Learning Disability Week, which runs from 18-24 June.

 

 

 

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

 

VIDEO AND AUDIO NEWS

A bullying victim tells how he is victimised

 

 

 

 

SEE ALSO

Edited June 22, 2007 by pumpkinpie

[mum23]

Hello Joybed,

I would recomend that you contact your schools transport team directly, we were told by my sons secondary school that my kids would NOT qualify for school transport, so silly me left my poor mum doing the school run (I am not able to drive), got to the point mum was getting physicaly tied of said run. So I thought it best to contact the transport team myself, the kind lady that answed the phone took all my details then said she would pass it on to the community paediatrician to get his veiw and they would deal with it as soon as possible. Now we get school transport on medical grounds for all 3 of my kids with a note saying this privision is in place for as long as my kids are in school. One of my boys has AS and all 3 have problems with walking due to pain from other medical problems.

Anyway I think it is worth trying, a friend of mine has a young lad with profound hearing loss, she was also told by school no point in applying for transport as he would not ever get it. She has just been adviced diffrantly by the transport team, they told her each claim is delt with on an individual basis, so is now applying for her son who is in year 7 going into year 8 in Sept.

Hope things work out on this front I know all county's very but here's hoping.

Anna

[Elaine]

Hi

 

If it is dangerous for your son to travel alone, then you should be able to ask for an escort. You'd probably need backing from a special needs professional who knows your son. (From my experience, county council people will try to get out of providing these services if at all possible. I only got my issues resolved by LOTS of phone calls and getting a member of the CDC assessment team involved)

[madme]

All above is good advice. Ask for a copy of the special needs transport policy. His will need help to learn how to travel to school safely. My son is similar and not capable of independent travel.

[Ian Jordan]

you need to have evidence of inabilty to process and understand the visual envronment.

 

professional help can be very useful

[joybed]

Thanks for all above advice it is so good to know there are other people in the same situation who can offer knowleagable advice. However i am even more unsure as to what to do as Marcus states he wants to go on the school bus like everyone else evn though he has admitted that he finds the bus too busy and has a lot of concerns regarding this. Dh thinks i should allow him to grow up and gain some independence and stop being so overprotective. The school have suggested i see him onto the bus every morning and collect him from the bus every night, but there a number of problems with this, A, I work shifts and will frequently not be at home to do this, B, I have 2 other young children and C I don,t want to be made to look more different by having his Mum collect him every night, it is saying i don,t trust him to walk down the road (which I have to admit i don,t, but he will get an hard enough time at school without this). It has been suggested that we do lots of practic e which he is getting anyway because he is being taken to transition visits on the bus and see how it goes. Any fyrther advice greatly recieved.

Edited June 29, 2007 by joybed

[Faithnomore]

No advice but we are currently having simillar issues. I withdrew DS1 from Secondary school as the treated him badly. He will be going back to school in sept (different school) and transport is a huge issue. He was kicked off the school bus provided for his last secondary, other kids wound him up and he reacted e.t.c. Without an escort this WILL happen again, I can't drive and I also have younger kids I have to take to school. Public transport is out as he has no stranger awareness and is easily distracted, plus it's 2 buses through town in rush hour!! Lucky if he would get there before 10, it's only 10 mins up the bypass by car!! The education officer is looking into it at the mo, but they are expecting him to be able to use school transport independently in the near future - yeah right a 12 yr old that behaves like a 5 yr old they've got a long wait. It's beyond me why school transport does not have adult escorts on them at all, a bus bus full of rowdy kids must be very distracting for the bus driver it should be a Health and safety issue. My dad was in the R.A.F we always had 2 adult escorts on our school buses.

[joybed]

I think one of the reasons I am so worried is that both my sister and I had a long journey to school on school bus when we were teenagers as we lived in the middle of nowhere and were the first pick up. We were both badly bullied by other children on the bus the usual name calling, being hit by other children, calling our family names, (it was at the time of the miners strike and our father is a miner and all the other kids parents voted conservative so we were a prime target). It made the journey to and from school a misery and I was so glad to leave school. My sister reacted in a different way by becoming a rebel and making herself a nuisance to become accepted but she now has agoraphobia and depression and I seriously don,t think the bullying helped. Although DS1 will only be on the bus for 15 minutes as opposed to our 1 hour journey we didn,t have ASD and found it hard so how would he find it. My sister also had an issue with a bus driver who sexually harassed her at the age of 13 until she told me and I told the headmaster and he was fired. thankfully it was just verbalising what he would like to do to her as opposed to doing it but still bad enough for her. These incidents have naturally made me very cautios as to where my children go and who with as both my sister and myself have very low self esteem and want my children to be happy and confident, not frightened and cautious.

[wishingwell]

Would insist on a escort provided by transport on medial grounds. eg no road sense cannot go out alone anytime, can not tolerate crowds on the bus noise and smells could harm himself by jumping off, sorry not trying to scare you just giving ideas which have been used in the past to obtain proper transport. Say u put him on a bus to introduce him prior to September and he became overloaded and it took hours to restore a sense of calm within him. Ask how on earth he is going to be able to cope with a new school, changes in moving from class to class when he has to begin his day in a totally confused state, due to them insisting on his Independence. This independence will have a detrimental effect on his ability to settle into his new school and learn and his behavior will have an additionally bad effect on his peers every morning so no-one we gain by this decision. Don't let this go, keep writing to them explaining that your fears are well founded.

Good Luck!