mrs.ddh Report post Posted August 8, 2007 Hello Forum, Haven't been on the forum for a bit because we went on holiday to Austria (DS's choice!) and on our return found a letter waiting from the LEA saying that they would reconsider doing an assessment for our son, after turning down the school's application for an SA and after receiving notification that we were appealing (our tribunal hearing was to be in October). So, now thank you LEA for deciding to consider our application again while DH still has holiday time from work and we can spend hours sitting at computers and on the phone instead of going out and about and having a bit of fun with our kids.... We seem to have come up with a good battle plan this time round, but we were wondering who to put under the section which asks who we would like to make a report on our son. We already have a letter from the psych who has been seeing our DS in relation to his anorexia but the educational requests he makes in the letter are weak at best (he is not an ed psych). Any and all advice is desperately needed! We now have less than two weeks to resubmit our application. Isn't this fun? ddh Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kathryn Report post Posted August 8, 2007 (edited) Hi Mrs ddh, Don't withdraw the appeal! It will keep the pressure on them. I don't think you have time to go looking for other independent assessments, so I'd say just submit what you have for now, an write a parental update of your own. Hopefully it will be enough for them to grant the assessment, and then maybe you could get an independent EP assessment if you think it will strengthen your case. Hope you had a great time in Austria, by the way! K x Edited August 8, 2007 by Kathryn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrs.ddh Report post Posted August 9, 2007 Hi Mrs ddh, Don't withdraw the appeal! It will keep the pressure on them. I don't think you have time to go looking for other independent assessments, so I'd say just submit what you have for now, an write a parental update of your own. Hopefully it will be enough for them to grant the assessment, and then maybe you could get an independent EP assessment if you think it will strengthen your case. Hope you had a great time in Austria, by the way! K x Hiya Kathryn, Thanks for responding - at least I got one reply! And you're right, we will not withdraw our appeal unless the LEA decides to play ball. I don't think I was clear enough in my request for information: I have yet to learn all the jargon! On the application form requesting the LEA to do an assessment, under section 2, it says: 'If an assessment is made, I want you to contact the following people for a report:' under which is a section listing the name/organisation, address, etc of whom you wish them to contact. Your reply seems to suggest that we could get an independent EP assessment after the fact, after we have submitted our application, without necessarily supplying that information under section 2. I guess what we were wondering is who is best suited to do a report on our son? Which organisation will be able to see his educational and emotional needs and make the LEA play ball? The NAS? CAHMS? (I have seen that mentioned on the forum.) As you can see, we are still very much newbies when it comes to the LEA-SA game...and frankly, I am already tiring of it... But on the plus side - we did have a lovely time in Austria and miss being there! We were in the Tirol mountain region, in the valley of Niederau! DS had picked it himself and it worked a treat for him. It was quiet, relatively unpeopled (low season for a ski resort!) and consisted of one road with very little on it. May not be most people's ideal holiday destination, but for a kid with HFA it was perfect - especially as DS hates noise, hustle and bustle and smelly, dirty toilets. Believe it or not, there was not a single toilet in the areas we visited which wasn't as clean as my own! (Probably cleaner, ) Honestly, the Austrians put us to shame. Every restaurant/ cafe/ shopping area/ tourist attraction had pretty clean toilets - we couldn't wait to try them out and see what each looked like! For example, a ladies loo in an Italian restaurant we randomly picked to have lunch in ( in the neighbouring town) had lovely drapes on the windows, bouquets of flowers and a huge table lamp on the marble-like vanity sink area, and an art display on a table featuring two lovely busts of the buddha! All this in an inexpensive little pizzeria! Unfortunately, the men's loo was not as ornate, so we had to open the door for DS and let him drool over the beauty of the ladies loo! Hope you have had or about to have a good hol too, Kathryn. Off to write more for the SA - day three... And if anyone else has any advice, I am still listening. (Or if you wish to compare holiday loos?) ddh Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
