Legal rights?

[heleno]

My Aspergers son started secondary school last September. He is on school action plus and has support from the Autism transition team. The school he is at has not got a great reputation for special needs but is academically brilliant and as he is a very bright child I choose to send him but I was fully aware that it would be a struggle to force the school to accept their responsibilities to my child. I am passionate that all schools should be genuinely inclusive and not just pay lip service to it whilst quietly forcing difficult children out in case it lowers their published academic achievements.

He has now had 2 separate isolations for incidents in school, the first when he asked for help in a test and was shouted at for being so stupid as to ask for help during a test, not surprisingly he lost his temper and the punishment was for that, not controlling himself. The second one was again connected with a test but it was as he got the results and he disputed an answer, or rather he tried to but the teacher wouldn't let him speak, he put his hand up toward the teachers face to try and stop her speaking so he could speak and touched her face - its not hard to figure what happened after that. He was told after each punishment that a line was drawn under it and we moved on, which is as it should be.

However

I have been called into the deputy head for a 'meeting' I have meetings with school at school every two weeks but he says he wishes to discuss 'different' things with me. I work in a school, i know exactly why he wants to see me, its because their policy probably says - after 1st isolation, write to parents, after second call parents in and tell them what will happen if this behaviour continues. i.e next incident will be temp exclusion and may progress onto perm after that.

But do they have the right to apply that to a child who will clearly continue to have incidents in school? Thats like asking him to stop being Aspergers and knowing that as a child with a special need, he will, on occasions loose control and in doing so will put himself at risk of exclusion, are they not failing to make the reasonable adjustment he has a legal right to?

Sorry this is so long! If anyone knows what the legal position is please share the info with me.

I could do with a bit of ammo when facing this chap on Monday morning

(this is the same teacher who, on the very first occasion he spoke to me on the phone, corrected my English when I mixed up atypical and typical, thats told me!)

Thanks

 

[bid]

Hi Helen

 

This is just my personal view, based on our experience...

 

I think that if a school has high academic standards but a poor reputation for special needs it is highly likely that they won't co-operate and the person who will suffer will be your son.

 

If is was me, I would be looking around for a different school, rather than waste months and possibly years in fruitless meetings.

 

As I say, this is just our experience, which led to my son having a complete breakdown and coming out of school for 6 months. In hindsight I should have taken him out of that school a good year before then, but I tried desperately hard to work with the school but it was pointless because there was no proper understanding of his special needs, or more to the point, any real desire to understand.

 

Anyway, that is just my view and I hope you can sort things out with the school.

 

Bid

Edited February 18, 2009 by bid

[Moll]

I would cancel the meeting and demand a meeting instead with the chair of governors and the governor responsible for special needs, these are the people legally responsible for the school. Tell them they are discriminating against your child due to their disability, which you will not accept, give them the information they need and ask them to draw up a policy with the staff. There is no point in meeting a member of staff who has no understanding.

 

The governors must respond to your request and act on any discrimination.

 

Ultimately I would move your child but I would make it as clear as mud they are breaking the law in regards to disabilities.

[Unaltronome]

Hello Helen,

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

The legal field in regards to behaviour, discipline and SENs is a minefield. I would suggest to call IPSEA. Their telephone lines are consistently busy but keep persevering.

 

Good luck on Monday.

 

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/

[Kazzen161]

What help does he get at SA+?

What does the Autism Outreach team say about these incidents?

 

My bit Aspie son does his tests in a separate room - why can't your son?

 

It does sound as if the school/teachers have little understanding of AS, and if that is how they react even with outreach involved, there does not seem to be a lot of hope.

 

I don't think the school should just accept meltdowns as being part of AS - BUT it should be adjusting things for your son to prevent meltdowns occuring in the first place (eg: telling your son that now is not the time to discuss the marking, but that he would discuss it at the end of the lesson).

 

I too believe in inclusion, but at the end of the day your priority is your son, and sometimes we do not have the time to wait for the school to change.

 

Have you tried contacting Parent Partnership to support you at this meeting?

[Kathryn]

Hi Helen,

 

The link below is to IPSEA's exclusion support sheets which give next steps advice. They are aimed at people whose children are already excluded, but it's a good idea to be prepared if you suspect this will be the school's next move. Sheet 1 is probably the most applicable to you at the moment.

 

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/exclusion-support-sheets.htm

 

On the same page on the right are details of ACE's dedicated exclusion advice line: it's worth trying them as well, and looking at the downloadable information from their site too.

 

Hope it helps

 

K x