advice please

[miles941]

Hi Everyone,

Please could anyone give me advice.

 

My 4 year old started school this week, i was told she would have a full time 1 to 1.

The head called me into her office and said the 1 to 1 was for 3 hours a day shared with another child. She told me that my child needs a 1 to 1 full time and that she was doing a risk assesment this week. She asked me to telephone around to try and get my child a 1 to 1 full time, she was giving 4 hours a day last term when she was in nursery. I asked the head what would happen if my child could'nt have full time and she informed me that she would have to go to a special school. My child asd and slight cerebral palsy.

The problem i'm having is who do i call? i have no idea never had to do this before. Has anyone gone through this before and if so could i have some tips please would be very grateful.

The head is not very aproachable.

 

Thanks

[smallworld]

Hi,

had just logged out to go to bed when I saw your post (had been busy doing some work for a change !)

Does your child have a statement ? or was 1:1 promised without this ?

surely 1:1 can't be shared by definition ?

I don't think it's your responsibilty to be ringing around to find someone to help, it's the schools if they cannot meet your daughter's needs.

If you give some more information about the specific circumstances surrounding the situation, I'm sure someone on here will be able to give you some good advice.

There's some quite early risers (not me obviously !)

Do you have a portage worker ? if so they might be able to help.

I hope you get some help with this,

wac

Edited September 9, 2005 by waccoe

[mossgrove]

This kind of thing makes my blood boil.

 

The headmaster has a legal responsibility to meet youir child needs. If your child needs full-time 1:1, he MUST provide it. He may wish to seek funding for it, but it is not your problem, it is his.

 

It may be reasonable for him to ask you to demand full-time support from the LEA as that will strengthen his case, but only if he is visgourously progressing the matter himself. Your headmaster cannot send your child to special school at all, it's outside his remit. The LEA casnnot do so without your agreement and your headmaster is not by law allowed to say that your child cannpot continue at his school because he cannot meet her needs.

 

It is clear to me that you need a statement of special educational needs to state in a legally-enforceable way what your child is entitled to. If your headmaster is not willing to request an asessment immediately then you can start the process yourself by writing to the LEA.

 

Simon

Edited September 9, 2005 by mossgrove

[Kazzen161]

As the others say - it is up to the school to discuss this with the LEA - not you!

 

If the statement says full-time 1:1, that is what the school has to provide (how they fund it is up to them).

 

The school cannot say they will not take her without full-time 1:1 - that is again up to the school to discuss with the LEA - not to threaten you with.

 

Karen

[Zemanski]

In a very roundabout way and completely inappropriately I think this head is probably trying to ask you for help - if you run around asking questions and making phonecalls it strengthens the school's case when they ask.

 

this isn't your job or responsibility as everyone says and I fully agree with that.

 

but

 

a call or two to relevant people might just help push things in your child's interest, you may also find some useful information.

 

you could contact the ed psych and discuss your concerns; if an ed psych report suggests full time 1:1 this would definitely strengthen any case for getting that put in place

ed psych's are usually based in the Social Inclusion dept. and you can get the number on the LEA website or phone their central office for it. I'm assuming you have an ed psych report so the name and number should be on there too.

 

if your child already has a statement and you feel it is not being met then you could contact the responsible officer - The LEA has legal responsibility to ensure that anything in a statement is in place.

the ROs number is on the statement usually and can also be found in social inclusion

 

the advisor for autism (or team) can help by advising the school to put certain things in place, they are fairly influential but don't have actual authority - again ask for a contact number from social inclusion.

 

if school doesn't sort things out and meet your child's needs and you don't have a statement then it is probably time to think about asking for one - you can ask the LEA for a statutary assessment of your child's special educational needs at any time. It takes a long time and is a pretty stressful process and you may have to go to appeal but a statement is a legal document which states the provision the school must provide by law and protects your child, to some extent, from being messed about in this way. You may not get the full time 1:1 straight away though - LEAs are pretty stingy.

 

Com's primary school head/senco asked me to do the same but she was lovely about it and was asking for help to get support for him and I cooperated willingly; your head has no right to to try to brow beat you and frighten you with rash and unjustified consequences - do you know how hard it is to get a child into a special school these days? many parents here would love that option for their children and those that do have it have had to fight tooth and nail - this is a very empty threat!

 

If you want to follow up some of these people do it because you feel it is the right thing to do for your child, not because you want to please the head and do her job for her or because you are angry and frustrated with the head. Contacts with these people can be helpful just in the sense that these are useful people to have on your child's side and the sooner they are made aware of your child the better their input should be in the long term. Our advisor is brilliant and has helped negotiate big changes in Com's provision over the last few months and I now have e-mail contact with her most weeks which is a great help generally - someone like that is worth evey penny of that first phonecall.

 

Zemanski

[phasmid]

I think we need some more background on this.

 

My 4 year old started school this week, i was told she would have a full time 1 to 1.

The head called me into her office and said the 1 to 1 was for 3 hours a day shared with another child. She told me that my child needs a 1 to 1 full time and that she was doing a risk assesment this week.

 

Where did she reach these figures of support from in the first place? If they are statemented hours the school will have had the funding (in one form or another) in order to implement them. A risk assesment ought to have been carried out BEFORE your shild started, not after. Any risk is there from the off...they don't appear after the first week of term!

 

 

She asked me to telephone around to try and get my child a 1 to 1 full time, she was giving 4 hours a day last term when she was in nursery. I asked the head what would happen if my child could'nt have full time and she informed me that she would have to go to a special school. My child asd and slight cerebral palsy.

 

The head should not say this and can certainly not enforce it. It is not down to you to organise this. The rules for refusing a child a place by reason of a disability are very tight and would be due to thinks such as access problems for wheelchairs, for example. But this would have come to light before your child was allowed entry itno the school. Either the head has offered you support for your child without having first obtained it (and is now left with egg on her face) or she is not being honest with you about the situation. I smell a rat! I know of no other parent who has been asked to arrange their childs support - anywhere, ever!

 

 

The problem i'm having is who do i call? i have no idea never had to do this before. Has anyone gone through this before and if so could i have some tips please would be very grateful.

The head is not very aproachable.

 

The LEA would be a good place. Ask them how you advertise and where can you arrange the interviews for the job you have been asked to fill. That ought to set the alarm bells ringing and, things moving! This IS NOT your job. The school should be doing this. The LEA won't like it. I would suggest you ask the head for something 'on paper' giving you a guide of the sort of support you need to be looking for to support your daughter. Armed with that (on schoolheaded paper - of course) I think the LEA will want to know what the hell the head thinks she is playing at!

[miles941]

Thank you all so much for all the info you have given me, i telephoned social services in my area who gave me the number of inclussion services only to be told they where all out on a training course and will be back in tomorrow.

Before my child started this school i met with the head, she told me that a 1to1 was awarded for the full hours that my child was in school, later to be informed that it was just for 3 hours a day between another child in the class.

That i dont mind but now i have been told that either my child can go just for 3 hours a day or i will have to be her helper unless there is a full time 1to1.

what the head told me is that she cannot give any more support from the school because there are others who are disabled, she doest'nt have the staff to cover for my child. I have spoken with my childs pead who said she would try and help.

I also dont mind my child going to a special school if this would help her.

She does not have portage any more, just speach and pysio.

My child been diagnosed but not statemented i hope this have cleared up some of your questions.

It's interesting to know i can ask for a statement never knew that.

Thank you all so much i will let you know the outcome.

Take care all.

[mossgrove]

Miles

 

One thing you will learn very quickly is that you cannot trust those in authority to do the right thing. If the headmistress is saying that she does not have the resources that is her problem and not yours. She is not allowed to deny your child access to full time education because of this, it is her responsibility to sort it out.

 

You should contact the LEA as a matter of urgency.Many LEA areas can make arrangement for emergency fuinding in Lieu of a statement if the need is clearly there, but some LEAs are better than others for this.

 

The request for asessment needs to me made as soon as is feasible. Initially it is just a short letter to the diurector of education asking for a formal assesment, no need to prvid much background at this stage, the LEA will the request views from all the relevant professionals and parents before deciding whether or not to asess.

 

Simon

[annie]

Hi Miles,

 

This link gives you a model letter for requesting a statutory assessment.

 

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

 

Annie

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