SALT is pushing too hard to move my son to a Special School

[JohnDL]

Hi,

 

Our SALT (who we have always trusted in the past) called us out of the blue and very forceably and insistently started pushing us to get us to agree to move our son from his current mainstream school to an LEA special school, ahead of his first annual review which is now due.

 

She stated that the gap between out son and the more able members of the class is starting to widen.

 

Having spent a year and thousands of pounds in the SEN appeal process trying to get an apppropriate SEN that reflected my son's needs I am suspicous about the current situation.

 

I seem to recall that there is something about Special Schools in the SEN process which means that they are not subject to the same level of monitoring as mainstream schools, but I can't put a finger on it at the moment.

 

I am concerned that, unless we are very careful, my son will end up dumped in some "dump" school where his SEN Statement needs will not monitored and will not be met.

 

I am also concerned that if my son moves to such a school, the LEA may then use this as leverage to attempt to try to amend or cease to maintain the Statement.

 

I could imagine that keeping him down a year may be a solution, but I read somewhere that the LEA will only tolerate this for one school year at which point they require him to be moved to another school.

 

I understand, we, as parents, have a veto on any move away from his existing school (but this may not be correct).

 

Does anyone have any comments on the above situation?

Edited February 4, 2012 by JohnDL

[Sally44]

If your son were in a special school he would still have to have a Statement.

 

The Statement should identify every need in part 2 and it should quantify and specify provision in terms of hours of input from professionals and hours of support required in school. When the Statement is specific it is legally binding on the LA/school and they have to provide what the Statement contains regardless of what is on offer within the school.

 

For example, my son was previously in the mainstream part of an enhanced resource school. His Statement detailed a certain amount of hours of 1:1 SALT. My son was getting more speech therapy input than any other child in that school, and he was receiving that input on a weekly basis. All the other children had a speech therapy programme delivered by a TA and the SALT "might" come into school once per term to update the targets.

 

What the SALT maybe saying is that as the gap is widening, he is going to fall further and further behind. Although his work will be differentiated for him, it may come to a stage where his work is differentiated to such an extent that it no longer resembles the lesson being taught in the mainstream class. In that case, he is not accessing mainstream is he? He is within the mainstream environment, but having to be taught almost in isolation.

 

You need to visit and find out about the LA special school. Is it ASD specific. What qualifications do the staff have regarding a qualification on top of their teaching qualification for autism. The Statement should detail the amount of termly 1:1 SALT therapy your son would need for his speech and language difficulties, and also his social communication, emotional literacy etc.

 

What is causing your child to fall further behind. Is it the language content, the concepts being taught. Could he have a specific learning difficulty on top of an ASD such as Dyslexia?

 

What you need to know is your son's non-verbal cognitive ability. This means his intelligence when you use assessments that are not language based. If he is 'around average', and the special school is 'low cognitive ability', then that placement is not suitable.

 

The LA has to go with the parental choice of school, unless it is detrimental to the other pupils, or a poor use of resources. However I think the SALT is actually trying to help because she knows how he is going to struggle further down the line.

 

The alternative, if the mainstream school is not suitable, and a LA special school is not suitable, is an independent ASD specific school for children of a similar cognitive ability.

 

For example, if your son needs alot of therapy input from SALT, and needs a certain teaching approach, and needs a small class size to help him understand and to enable him to have time with a specialist teacher [and not most of his learning time with a TA], then an independent or special school is going to have class sizes of around 8.

 

Is your son happy at his current school.

 

What year is he in and what is his academic level.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Sally44

[Sally44]

Is your current Statement very specific and does it quantify hours of input from all professionals and support in school?

 

And when did this Tribunal take place?

 

If you have spent alot of money and the Statement is very specific, and you still want your son to remain in the mainstream school, and for him to receive all the quantified hours of support and therapies that are detailed in the Statement [which I presume includes Speech and language therapy input]. Then that can continue.

 

But IF the SALT is right and he is falling behind, he may have to be withdrawn more, or the classwork may become too difficult for him. And then the LA may say that it is a better use of their resources for him to be in a special school [which automatically has a higher staff:pupil ratio, rather than him have 1:1 support just for him in his current school. HOWEVER if the Statement does specify 1:1 support during the school day and does gives those hours, then at the Annual Review the professionals involved would have to say that what he is currently receiving is not enough and is not meeting his needs.

 

That is why you need a very clear Educational Psychologist report that has assessed your son and can definately say whether a particular school is suitable or not.

 

The only other reason I can think of that this move maybe suggested - other than the honest fact that your son is not coping and is not suitable for that school [what did your EP report say at the time of your Tribunal about that mainstream placement?]. It could be a way of the SALT/LA trying to amend his Statement by naming a special school.

 

If you got the SALT's opinion in writing, and your son's cognitive ability is too high for the LA's special school, then you may have a good chance of seeking an ASD specific placement where all the pupils would be similar to your son.

 

Whatever happens at the Annual Review, you can lodge an appeal whether the Statement IS amended, or is NOT amended.

 

You just need to very sure that his current placement is the right one. Whatever provision is in his Statement now would follow him to any new school.

 

Although LAs do often reduce provision, they would have to demonstrate, at any SEND Tribunal, that the child had made such progress and the responsible professional would have to state verbally or in writing that your son no longer needed that provision.

 

This appears to be going the opposite way. The SALT is saying even with the provision in the Statement, he is falling further behind and needs more help, or more therapy, or a different learning environment, or different teaching approaches etc.

[Sally44]

The only thing I can think of in the SEN case law about "special schools" is that it does say that in some circumstances the Statement does not need to be SO specific. But that is usually when the provision the child needs is delivered as standard within that school.

 

For example, my son's second statement is specific in saying what professionals need to be involved and for how many hours etc. However his ASD specific school provides SALT and OT therapy on an a daily basis as standard. Those professionals are part of the school staff. So that provision is not going to be chipped away at.

 

However case law also says that a Statement being less specific should be the exception, rather than the rule, regarding special schools.

 

Have a look on www.ipsea.org.uk website under their case law section.

[Sally44]

If you are happy with the current school you stick with that at the Annual Review.

 

If they do produce evidence that he is not making progress and/or is not coping in school then it would be sensible to consider other options.

 

If any schools are mentioned, you should go and visit them and ask them questions.

 

If the Statement is amended at all, part 2, 3 or 4, you can appeal that amendment.

 

If he really is not making progress, this maybe a good opportunity to look around at what other ASD specific independent schools are near you because by saying he is not suitable mainstream - if he is too capable for a special school - the SALT may have given you a golden opportunity to seek an independent placement on the grounds of her advice to you???

 

As your child has SEN over and above what is typically provided in schools, he has to have a Statement regardless of what school he goes to.

 

Just make sure the Statement covers all his needs. Is there an additional need that had not been identified that is causing this widening of the gap? What does the SALT think is causing the gap to widen. Should the Statement be amended to include a new need in part 2? If so that need would have to have provision quantified and specified in part 3.

 

So I would take the SALT's concerns seriously. Ask her what her advice would be to meet his needs at his current placement.

 

What you don't want is for your son to be struggling, to become anxious and frustrated about not being able to do his work. For him to notice that he is behind everyone else and doing different work. For his self confidence and self esteem to plummet. That could lead to other things such as depression, anxiety, school refusal etc.

[chris54]

I would agree with what Sally44 has stated.

Any change in school wont happen overnight.

As I understand it a child wont get into a special school without a statement of educational need.

I cannot imagine a situation were a LA would send a child to a special school that did not need to be there. Just on cost grounds alone it would make no scenes. There are plenty of parent who would prefer their child to in in a special school and not mainstream. In our area the LA is reducing the number of special school places in favor of mainstream. They has even gone to the extent of blocking parent attempts to set up a Special Free School. ( The only type of Free School that need council approval to set up.) But that another story.

[JohnDL]

Many thanks for your responses.

 

We had a meeting at the School today which turned out to be the Annual Review (although it was not clear from previous correspondance that this was what it was going to be).

 

Both the SALT and the LEA's Educational Psychologist were present.

 

A specific Special School was mentioned by the Educational Psychologist. Armed with the information above, I queried whether the teachers at that school were qualified to teach ASD children and I was advised that they undergo a year's training and also have experience from being at the school. Whether this is actually sufficient or appropriate remains to be determined.

 

I asked the Educational Psychologist to send me details of all of the Special Schools in the LEA's area and he said he would get back to me with further information.

 

In the short term there was agreement that our son should stay where he is, but perhaps go down a year to reduce the gap (he's currently in Year 3). There was no suggestion that the Statement would be amended to reduce the very specific provision already in place (that we had fought hard to get).

 

We will wait and see what information is provided. The SALT advised us to speak to the local National Autistic Society group to get information from other parents in the area as to their experiences of the local Maintained and Private Schools.

 

If it does come to having to have a Private School if there is not suitable LEA school for our son's needs then it looks like we will have a very hard fight on hands.

Edited February 6, 2012 by JohnDL

[kirky]

One step at a time....The LA can place a child in a maintained special school without a statement if deemed necessary and if that is the case it can happen fairly quickly. Once in the school the child will be given a statement. We have just gone through the whole statement process and decided to seek a special placement after advice from his teacher and the LA. After reading lots of very helpful threads on here I was convinced that we were going to have to battle to get a private placement. As it happens we have found an absolutely fantastic headteacher of a local special school! I left the initial meeting with her thinking, wherever she is is where I want my son to be. A very knowledgable woman who has dedicated her life to understanding autism and making life better for children with it. The panel is sitting on Wednesday so fingers crossed they give him a placement. I guess what I'm saying is don't automatically discount the local maintained special schools, there are some good ones out there. If none are suitable then so be it, get your battle gear on! But don't spend lots of money on independent reports etc. until you've visited all of the schools on the LA list. Good luck!

Edited February 7, 2012 by kirky

[Sally44]

What did your own independent professionals say about a mainstream placement?

Did you get your own Educational Psychologists report?

 

As already said, I would listen to what they say - and look at schools they say could meet his needs. Visit them and ask them questions about whether any staff at the school have an additional qualification for Autism in addition to their teaching qualification.

 

Regarding Special Schools that are maintained by the LA. Yes there are good ones out there. But what is important for your child is whether it is a suitable peer group.

 

For example my son is around average cogntiive ability on non-verbal assessments. He too was falling further behind mainstream [he also has dyslexia]. He was becoming very anxious and frustrated. He became mentally ill, and now has additional diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder and OCD on top of everything else.

 

We also visited the Autism Unit on the same school site. The children there were significantly more autistic than our son ie. some non-verbal and/or emerging speech, some behavioural issues and aggression. None of the children had anything like the social skills that our child did [and our son's social skills are not good]. So he would not have had anyone to talk with or socialise with. My son understands better but due to dyslexia struggles to read/write. Some of the children in the unit were reading and writing but with little or no "understanding" behind what they were doing.

 

We also visited the only special school for autism and MLD. Again the children were more severely autistic and those that were not autistic had low cognitive ability. Again this meant my son was not in a similar peer group because my son has a severe/profound speech disorder. MLD children have much better social skills than a child with an ASD. So he would again find himself unable to learn due to ASD and SpLD and unable to socialise because his obsessions and speech disorder often meant he was ignored or not understood .

 

A SEND Tribunal panel is going to be looking at a suitable peer group for your child. As you already know, it doesn't have to be the best educational placement available, just suitable. And all the provision that is currently within the Statement cannot be removed without a professional stating it is no longer needed. If a LA did remove or reduce the provision you just lodge an Appeal. And if any professional tries to reduce hours, they have to demonstrate that the child has improved, or that they no longer need that input.

 

My son's NHS SALT [who was actually very good], due to pressure from her manager [iMO], reduced my sons 1:1 SALT therapy hours. Yet when I asked her to detail to me the TOTAL amount of hours she had spent with my son in 1:1 therapy and also all the hours needed for the admin side of things, she replied stating she had spent "significantly more hours than is detailed in the Statement". So if she had to spent more hours than is in the Statement, how can she be recommending that the hours are cut?? That is exactly the question I put to the SEND Panel and again they found in my favour.

 

The Statement has to be a true reflection of needs and what provision is needed to meet those needs. Falling further behind/gap widening, not making progress etc are all signs that either the provision or placement is not right. And these issues usually need addressing for the secondary placement because you also have to consider examinations, future prognosis etc. Some children with an ASD will be able to sit GCSEs. For those that won't they need other examination types and they need life skills to work towards independent living and working. Just because the gap is widening does not mean it is MLD. If there are other reasons for the gap widening, other than just low cognitive ability, then you are really looking at an ASD specific secondary school for children with a similar non-verbal IQ.

 

If your son is still in primary I can understand you wanting to keep him where he is. But if he begins to show signs in school or at home that he is not coping you may need to think again.

 

If your child is around average cognitive ability or even just below [but definately not moderate learning difficulties], then you may have to seek an independent ASD specific placement. Give yourself plenty of time to start looking around the secondary schools in your area, both mainstream and special [i started looking in year 5]. If there is no secondary school that has a suitable peer group with around the same cognitive ability, and your child needs SALT and OT input and/or has a specific learning difficulty such as Dyslexia, and your child is showing distress in a mainstream environment/or not even in school anymore - then you have a good case to seek an independent school. But you know it will be a fight and it will be costly because you will need independent reports and you will probably need them to attend as expert witnesses.

 

In my experience I have found that although the LA fought tooth and nail to keep my son mainstream - now that I have won that placement, I actually had a nice chat with that same inclusion officer who was asking how my son was doing at his independent school and I think she was genuinely happy that he is doing so well. And the Independent school have said that my authority is actually very good once a child is placed with them and does not challenge the placement or try to move them back mainstream again.

 

I would recommend you keep a very close eye on things where he is. Make sure he gets the provision in the Statement. Measure his progress via IEP targets [and if you think he has specific weaknesses get them as IEP targets], and school reports. Try to identify the "cause" of the gap widening. Is it environmental [needs smaller classes, low arousal environment], is it sensory [needs sensory programme, learning delivered differently or using the TEACCH approach], does he have a specific learning difficulty [dyslexia, poor working or short term memory, difficulties with executive functions], are his social skills improving, do other kids like him and play with him etc. That will help you make decisions for the secondary placement.

 

If the school agree to hold him back a year, I think they only agree to do this once. But you really need to know WHAT the problem is causing him to fall further behind. For example if he has a severe speech disorder, then he is going to struggle across all lessons and an independent school that has SALT on site, who differentiates the lessons with the teacher and also co-teaches is going to deliver lessons in a way that is much more accessible for your child.

 

It is very difficult [almost impossible] to get an independent primary school placement.

 

If you do have to move him to a special school - eventhough they don't have a similar peer group. You would still appeal any secondary special school placement if it was the same set up ie. MLD and not a suitable peer group. By moving him to a special school that may address any anxiety issues he may begin to show.

 

I'm sorry you're having problems having gone through a tribunal. Unfortunately, as my tribunal panel said, there are some children that simply do not fit the mold for either LA maintained mainstream or special schools. That minority of children need something different and specific. [and unfortunately you have to wait until secondary transfer to fight for it].

 

My son refused school in Jan of year 4. He should have started year 5 in September 2011. I lodged an Appeal to SEND for parts 2 and 3 and initially did not include part 4 because secondary placement was too far away to even consider. However we had 2 Tribunal cancellations in April and July 2011, which bought us to year 6. So I amended the appeal to include part 4 as well. So please be aware that you can make changes to any appeal you lodge if you find yourselves getting near to year 6.

 

At his current school my son is the youngest in his class. But there are two other children a year older than him. It is a mixed age class. The class is grouped according to ability rather than age.

 

Kirky: if a child is obviously special school material then the LA will put them into that environment straight away, and that may mean they move initially without a Statement. But a Statement is needed for a special school placement in most if not all local authorities. And although the Head maybe brilliant, she can move at any time. So make sure that your Statement is legally binding by the wording being specific and the provision quantifying and specifying input in terms of hours and 1:1 therapy. Most local authorities try to keep children mainstream using the argument of "inclusion". A special school costs them more money than a mainstream one [unless the Statement is specific and pulls in more provision and therapy than would normally be provided].

Edited February 7, 2012 by Sally44