panicking about appealling the statement

[bensmum2]

I'm great at giving advice to others about things i've been through and i know i have the support of ipsea and nbcs and nas and even ace if need be, but i've just got my sons final statement after 9 years and 4 previous attempts and i am really terrified and unsure how i will ever got a case together good enough to get him the help he needs!

he was on SA+ for many years with a couple of IEP's but never reveiwed, they Ignored his needs all along until he started to become ill in year 6! He got help with transition but eventually got so ill he was unable to go to school, and the lea held secret meetings and decided it was our fault and threatened us with child protection proceedings, they forced him back into school and he became violent , then we got his aspergers diagnosis (privately) and i took him out of school and started to home school , he has been a changed lad and has matured a lot even learning to catch a bus on his own which has been a big thing especially with his severe anxiety. He even manages 2 half days at college in a small class. All the time i was trying to get him help he never had input from salt or the asd team ,they were never even asked to assess him , and only a small amount of input from the ot outside school. the only thing he ever got was a bit of help from the visual impairment team as he is partially sighted, but over the years they have gradually reduced the size of the books they provide till he now has to read normal size print , even though he has a varying eye condition called nystagmus that gets worse with stress and one of his eyes is one point away from blindness!! His writing is illegible and recently someone even mentioned it was possibly dysgraphia, but never wrote it in the report. The Seathis last schoolrefused to asforhlp fom the lEA and when things got serious he started lying and coveringup te times he sent my son home becasue he was so stresssed at the noise etc. Camhs say he will never get over this if he doesnt go to a mastream school so we have no support there, although salt etc have now done assessments none of them have offered more than a once a term visit to school, on our recent visit to see the school named by the lEA the ta showing us round said she knew what it was like she was a bit of an overprotective mother too, and also said if i kept sying my son wouldnt cope in maintream he would begin to believe me and then he wouldnt cope !! So despite him now having the correct diagnosis and a statement and all the right reports , the schools opinions dont change. The lea think that becasue he can cope in college less than 2 hours twice a week in a class of 10 , then he will cope in full time mainstream with 35 pupils per class.The problem has been that he should have had "early intervention" and then his emotional and self esteem problems may not be so bad ,we might have been taught strategies to help his sensory problems as well, but now at 14 and due to start year 10, i can't home school any longer due to my own health and he needs to get some qualifications, he really wants to be with other children like himself instead of always the odd one out and left on his own all the time, it hurts me so much thta he does not have a friend in the world, he has recentyl decide he wants to go to the cinema after years of saying he hated going, and yet he has not one friend he can ask so he has to go with me or his dad, he must be so sad inside and if they force him back in mainstream what has it all been about ? things will get bad again and he will be ill, i am so frightened of this appeal i don't know where to start, even with the backing i have got, what if i dont remember everything ? what if they lEa start to lie again?

The school we want is outside our area but they can give him everything he has missed out on , they wiill provide in house ot and salt and even music therapy to help calm him, they will even teach him to use and knife and fork and butter his toast his fine motor skills are so bad he cant control cutlery or catch a ball, they were assessed at -0.5 th percentile yet still no help was offfered. He has never been on a school trip or holiday with school because he coudlnt cope with the sensory issues and doesnt like being seperated fro us, he has ever ever stayed away from home in his 14 years and even if my friends come with their children he wont let them in his room> How can i convince the tibunal that he needs to for once have the help he has been missing out on for all these years and be with people with similar problems , in the leas named school there are no other partially sighted children at all and only 8 with any kind of asd out of 800 pupils, he also has Dyspraxia and sensory issues and generalised anxiety disorder, how will i manage to get all these things across to the tribunal ? i really am scared and half of me feels like giving up and letting him go to the named school, but why should he not get the help he needs,but i dotn know what lies the lea will tell and who they will call as witnesses, maybe people who i thought supported me. sorry to rant on and on , but i know i have to start getting my case ready on mondya and there is so much to it , i just dont know where to start with it, its frightening!

[Sally44]

Do you have all of this in your own reports?

Do they recommend a whole school approach, small group work, OT/SALT etc integrated into the daily timetable (not just taken out for individual therapy).

Look on the IPSEA website for any other similar judgements. I think there are a couple from reading your post eg. a child with cerebal palsy was placed at a school that would 'educate' him in life skills because for him he did not just need to learn to read and write but to hold a knife and fork etc. If his fine motor skills are that bad, then he does need to be taught many life skills.

Also go onto the SENDIST website and have a look at similar cases and what the panel ruled. I have managed to find one similar to my son.

You need to be talking about his future life choices and being able to live and work independently. If the time and resources is not put into him now, then time, resources and even more money is going to have to be spent on him as a dependent adult.

Is he capable of taking exams. Is everyone saying that he at least average cognitive ability. It would seem the other professionals are saying that because they are still expecting him to go mainstream, so they cannot turn round and say that a school for MLD is necessary. So prepare your case and just think of an answer and example for every argument you think they will put forward for how he can access one of their LEA maintained mainstream schools.

Are you seeking for an independent one, or is it an LEA maintained one?

If he has all these difficulties how are they expecting him to manage in a class of 30+ secondary children??

If you have private reports it should say that he definately will not cope in that environment. And don't you already have that evidence from what has happened so far.

And you also need to talk about the cumulative effect of all these difficulties. You are talking about a child with an ASD, SID, motor skills problems, anxiety and nearly blind in one eye. Does he learn in the same way as other children or does he have problems with generalisation etc.

You know you've just got to get on with it. And like you, at the moment I feel so down because on the one hand you have a child with multiple complex diagnosis, and yet all professionals then seem to be trying to find excluses as to why they don't need to do anything about it. If our children have such clinically significant difficulties to warrant a diagnosis, how can the professionals then turn round and say "but they're doing okay without our input."

 

[Kazzen161]

Try to split the task up into manageable chunks.

 

- prepare your arguments for each aspect that is not stated in his needs

- prepare your arguments for the provision required for each of the needs

- prepare you case to prove why the LAs named school cannot meet these needs and to prove that your preferred school can.

 

Include all his needs (social, academic, emotional, behavioural, life and independence skills).

 

If you go to Tribunal and nothing changes, you have not lost anything. However, it is likely that you will gain at least some of your changes, if not all.

 

His education does not stop at 16 - a Statement can help get the right 16+ education as well, so it is worth fighting for.

 

Remember the LA do not have to provide the BEST school - only one that can meet his needs, so you need to prove that their school cannot meet his needs. Also remember not to talk about the school that you WANT - it is about the school that he NEEDS.

[wasuup]

I am just going through my daughters proposed statement which isn't very good. I am finding the info on the afasic website useful in regard to proposed statements. My daughter is under the 1st centile in maths reasoning so I am trying to find out if she should have a specialist teacher for this and help in other lessons such as science and geography? There is also a dystalk website which has some advice on it in regard to dyspraxia.

[bensmum2]

Thanks ladies, the only rpivate report i have is his original diagnosis (july 2009)which states consideration schould be given as to whether a mainstream school is right for him or other provision should be made, and as he had been violent in school twice just before the assessment after being forced back into mainstream , the private doctor said he agreed with me that this would be likely to get worse if nothing was done.

The school i want is a private out of area special needs school, they took him for 4 days and did a full assessment of all his needs and he would get regular ot , help with independance,mobility, salt ,music therapy for his anxiety and the right help with his viusual needs, will the tribunal accept these reports or will i need to get more? The only provision for any help for Him in the statement is once a term(asd, salt, ot) or once a year for his visual needs,( in my opinion the lea visual support have been failing him for 7 years already as they dont't take his varying eye condition into account at all) they have not specified hours for any of those, but the statement does specify 15 hours overall on top of what school can provide. Both The ot and ed psych say he needs small classes and small group work an dthe ed psych says the intake should be sufficiently broad that he is able to interact wiht other with simnilar needs and in a resourced based environment, i'm not sure whjat that is exactly , but the school i want has all the resources and more that he needs, but the one the lea named doesn't seem to have any.

[Kazzen161]

but the statement does specify 15 hours overall on top of what school can provide. Both The ot and ed psych say he needs small classes and small group work an dthe ed psych says the intake should be sufficiently broad that he is able to interact wiht other with simnilar needs and in a resourced based environment, i'm not sure whjat that is exactly , but the school i want has all the resources and more that he needs, but the one the lea named doesn't seem to have any.

 

It should just state the total hours of support - what if the school decide they cannot provide any other help?

 

Have the OT and EP written down that he needs small classes, etc? How small is small? 15? 8? Small group work is usual in mainstream primary schools anyway.

 

A resourced base environment is generally where there is some sort of unit attached to a mainstream and the children go into the mainstream to a greater or lesser extent, with support from the unit. Some are very good. Are you sure the school the LA has named is not a resourced base? Are there really 35 in each class? - most secondaries round here try to keep the class size to 25-28.

 

It does not matter that the school you want has all he needs and more (in fact that is an argument that the LA will use against it). The LA have to "use their resources efficiently", so they cannot justify paying for more than the child needs, so do not word it in that way. It is purely about a school being able to meet his needs as specified in his Statement, eg: if he needs OT and it says that in his Statement, that is fine - if it does not say OT in his Statement then whether a school offers it or not is neither here nor there to the LA.

 

Although the school offers OT/SaLT/music therapy, it may be that your child will not be offered it unless it is specified in his Statement. Some independents charge the LA extra for that additional help and some just include it in the standard fee.

[bensmum2]

Hi yes it just says 15 hours support on the statement it was the lea who said at the meeting on top of what the school provide, the named school does not have a resource base just a learning support room, small classes and small group wor are mentioned by the ot and ed pscyh in their r4eports, but the lea have ignored that , as you say what is a small class, personally i am thinking as small as poss for him to manage to stay in there, but it is open to interpretation as you say. They do not recommend any ot or salt or anything other than visits for advice once a term , but according to the school i want, he will get regular input from these as well as functional skills and independance training . Surely wiht his extra low motor skills percentiles he should be getting something from the ot wherever he goes?? i think the classes at the school the lea want are def over 30/32 pupile, whereas where i want there are approx 5 in each class . Does he not have the right to be with children with similar needs? And after 2 years somatic illness and vomiting, bed wetting and severe anxiety at secondary school , has he not been put through enough?

[Kazzen161]

Hi yes it just says 15 hours support on the statement it was the lea who said at the meeting on top of what the school provide, the named school does not have a resource base just a learning support room, small classes and small group wor are mentioned by the ot and ed pscyh in their r4eports, but the lea have ignored that , as you say what is a small class, personally i am thinking as small as poss for him to manage to stay in there, but it is open to interpretation as you say. They do not recommend any ot or salt or anything other than visits for advice once a term , but according to the school i want, he will get regular input from these as well as functional skills and independance training . Surely wiht his extra low motor skills percentiles he should be getting something from the ot wherever he goes?? i think the classes at the school the lea want are def over 30/32 pupile, whereas where i want there are approx 5 in each class . Does he not have the right to be with children with similar needs? And after 2 years somatic illness and vomiting, bed wetting and severe anxiety at secondary school , has he not been put through enough?

 

How is the learning support room set up - what does it offer? Extra support? A time-out space? Could he do whole lessons there? How will the 15 hours+ support be used? One TA or several? In all morning classes or in all english/maths classes? How would the OTs/Salts advice be implemented - in class or in separate session with TA? You need to have all the facts about this school if you are to build a good case against it.

 

He does not have the right to be with children with similar needs (if anything the current thinking is that he has the right to be included in a mainstream environment) - though you know it would probably be good for him.

 

You need to pick out all the aspects of the mainstream that he cannot cope with (hustle and bustle in corridors, school bell, lack of time to get from one place to another, no quiet place to go to when stressed, etc) and show how these will not be an issue at your preferred school.

 

I am not disputing that your preferred school would be better for him, but you need to prepare a solid case to support your argument.

[bensmum2]

yes i asked how they would use the 15 hours i didn't get a reply, the learning support room seems quite busy and they were reluctant to let me see it at break times, and we talked so much the break time came and went, but i believe its really noisy and busy then. Inclusion doesn't work for everyone and it doesn't work for Ben, since i have been home schooling he has matured a lot, he even goes to 2 college courses (both less than 2 hours) and manages to catch the bus to colege and back after we did some mobility training and a lot of practice, he still doesn't socialise though. But as the classes at college are so small (about 10 altogether) he manages to take part in some class discussions which he never did at school. he finds the college more serious and more grown up and not so intimidating.I thought i was proving he is better in smaller groups but the lea have taken it as a sign that he is over his problmes and now wnat to put ihim back into mainstream. The shcool promise and individual curriculum but how can they do this for 784 kids? they all promise you everything when you first visit , but it never happens once your child actually starts there !!!

[Sally44]

Hi yes it just says 15 hours support on the statement it was the lea who said at the meeting on top of what the school provide, the named school does not have a resource base just a learning support room, small classes and small group wor are mentioned by the ot and ed pscyh in their r4eports, but the lea have ignored that , as you say what is a small class, personally i am thinking as small as poss for him to manage to stay in there, but it is open to interpretation as you say. They do not recommend any ot or salt or anything other than visits for advice once a term , but according to the school i want, he will get regular input from these as well as functional skills and independance training . Surely wiht his extra low motor skills percentiles he should be getting something from the ot wherever he goes?? i think the classes at the school the lea want are def over 30/32 pupile, whereas where i want there are approx 5 in each class . Does he not have the right to be with children with similar needs? And after 2 years somatic illness and vomiting, bed wetting and severe anxiety at secondary school , has he not been put through enough?

 

The LEA have SAID to you 15 hours on top of what the school provides. However your statement just says 15. So send in a letter to the person you met from the LEA saying further to our meeting of xxx you stated that the overall support would be 15 hours on top of those provided by school. Can you tell me what the TOTAL number of hours of support would be.

 

Small group work should be specified. My son's statement says small groups of up to 7 children. You could ask the OT or EP to clarify this as the code of practice does say that provision should be quantified and specified. If you cannot get the LEA or other professionals to specify, then you have to ask the panel to decide what 'small group' means. But it would be in your favour that you have tried to establish what that means.

As Kazzen says, find out exactly what this resource room is, who will be in there (students and teaching staff), what can happen in that room - ie. is it for time out, for studying, for small group work.

As also said concentrate on what he needs and what the mainstream cannot provide, whilst yours can. Do not mention anything over and above what he needs being available at the independent placement. Just itemise how the independent one meets the needs as set out in the Statement.

[Sally44]

yes i asked how they would use the 15 hours i didn't get a reply, the learning support room seems quite busy and they were reluctant to let me see it at break times, and we talked so much the break time came and went, but i believe its really noisy and busy then. Inclusion doesn't work for everyone and it doesn't work for Ben, since i have been home schooling he has matured a lot, he even goes to 2 college courses (both less than 2 hours) and manages to catch the bus to colege and back after we did some mobility training and a lot of practice, he still doesn't socialise though. But as the classes at college are so small (about 10 altogether) he manages to take part in some class discussions which he never did at school. he finds the college more serious and more grown up and not so intimidating.I thought i was proving he is better in smaller groups but the lea have taken it as a sign that he is over his problmes and now wnat to put ihim back into mainstream. The shcool promise and individual curriculum but how can they do this for 784 kids? they all promise you everything when you first visit , but it never happens once your child actually starts there !!!

 

 

With everything DONT ASK, PUT IT IN WRITING. You only have written evidence with you. You have no evidence of anything you said or they said. That is heresay and cannot be proven. But you submit all your letters asking for information, clarification etc and the fact that they don't reply is useful.

[Sally44]

yes i asked how they would use the 15 hours i didn't get a reply, the learning support room seems quite busy and they were reluctant to let me see it at break times, and we talked so much the break time came and went, but i believe its really noisy and busy then. Inclusion doesn't work for everyone and it doesn't work for Ben, since i have been home schooling he has matured a lot, he even goes to 2 college courses (both less than 2 hours) and manages to catch the bus to colege and back after we did some mobility training and a lot of practice, he still doesn't socialise though. But as the classes at college are so small (about 10 altogether) he manages to take part in some class discussions which he never did at school. he finds the college more serious and more grown up and not so intimidating.I thought i was proving he is better in smaller groups but the lea have taken it as a sign that he is over his problmes and now wnat to put ihim back into mainstream. The shcool promise and individual curriculum but how can they do this for 784 kids? they all promise you everything when you first visit , but it never happens once your child actually starts there !!!

 

You can use the college as evidence that he copes better in small classes of 10 or less children. Can the college put anything in writing for you about how he copes in that environment. Unfortunately he is going to college on his own on the bus. Is the trip to school comparable? If the LEA have this evidence then they will use it. What you would need to argue is his history of anxiety and not coping in school and having to withdraw him. (You need to also have an argument if they say you are an over anxious over protective mother - so argue the FACTS and try not to get emotional about it). And do you have any evidence of when he has had a bad day at college that he has been unable to cope, or has had to be picked up, or did not cope on the bus etc. Because it appears your argument is that the CUMULATIVE effect of not being supported in all his areas of need is going to mean his anxiety will increase and he will not cope, and one of the effects of this will be a deterioration in being able to access school or travel on the bus.

[Sally44]

For your argument about college remember that it is only for 2 hours. A day in school is 6+ hours. How do they support him in college?

[bensmum2]

Hi Sally, i have already said all this, but t6hyea re ignoring it, in my opinion , the fact that eh can access college on the bus is becasue firstly it is a normal daytime bus and does not have loads of school kids on it so is less noisy, secondly we did a lot of practice withhim going with him many times before he was able to do it himself and this proves with mobility training he can progress but this is the only place he goes on his own (as i am sking for mobility training for hsi eyes and anxiety) They are fully aware that i withdrew him form school ecasue he couldnt cope, but they have turned this round to their advantage by saying it was schools fault bacasue they never asked for help so the lea didnt know ben was struggling and that he will cope in a different mainstream with support. College have put in writing that he copes well but doesnt socialise and prefers to stay in the classroom during breaks, but that he requires little or no support , in my opinion it shows he is better with small classes, but the lea have decided it means he has matured and will now cope better in mainstream due to this, whenever i think i have made a breakthrough or proved a point. i took him out to prove he could do well in a smaller environment and the doctor who diagnosed him said as i had removed him from the cause of the anxiety (that being school) his anxiety had decreased significantly and his aspergers symptoms could be plainly seen, unfortunately he didn't wrtie that bit in his report and i have been trying to get a letter from him to state that since january but haven't had replies to my letters and emails !