Permanant Exclusion from school.

Wench

I'm needing advice for a situation that is going to crop up very soon.
I have a 6 year old son, who has a Statement of Special Educational Needs ( SEN ) For behavioural/emotional and social difficulties.

He quite often gets a 5 day exclusion due to his violent outbursts, and he's now on 42 of 45 days exluded.

Our knowledge is, that once he reaches 45 days ( which is going to happen sooner rather than later ) he will be permanantly excluded.

He is currently in a mainstream school, that doesnt have the facilities to be able to deal with him and help him correctly.

My questions are, Once he reaches the 45 days, what happens next regarding schooling ? I'm not educated enough to be able to home school him for the rest of his school life!

If he is to be put back into schooling, would one be chosen thats more appropriate for him and his needs ?
And if anyone thinks of anything that just might be half related to exclusions and SEN and wishes to reply, please do so, I need all the info I can get.

Nicki

Is your LEA not supporting you through this? You should have a Pupil Exclusions Officer who can advise you. In our borough the policy is not to permanently exclude kids with SEN/EBD ever. They are often however moved to more suitable settings if a placement hasn't worked out and temporary exclusions have failed but they don't have a permanent exclusion on their school record which makes it harder to place them.

As he has a statement I would be pushing for an urgent annual review and working with the school SENCO, the LA EP and any other professionals involved with him to find the right place for him and get him settled. And no, there is no onus on you to home school him either temporarily or permanently! If the worst comes to the worst, he'll go to a PRU for a few weeks until things are sorted.

Plans_all_plans

What has the school said? Are they not speaking with you about these issues? Who is the SEN co-ordinator at the school? I'd speak to them first to find out, they should be trying to support you and your son and informing you of what might happen next!

jackieglasgow

I have no experience or knowledge whatsoever, but the fact that your SIX year old son with special needs has been excluded from school is a damn disgrace and a sad indication of everything that is wrong with the UK's education system. See you local MP ASAP, and your councillor, and contact whichever charity is the main one for your son's conditions and ask for their help. Shout, scream and beg loud enough, and they will give you help.

Nicki

jackieglasgow wrote: »

I have no experience or knowledge whatsoever, but the fact that your SIX year old son with special needs has been excluded from school is a damn disgrace and a sad indication of everything that is wrong with the UK's education system. See you local MP ASAP, and your councillor, and contact whichever charity is the main one for your son's conditions and ask for their help. Shout, scream and beg loud enough, and they will give you help.

I have a child with severe special needs myself so have every sympathy with the OP but I am afraid I still think your post is naive and unhelpful to the OP.

The fact is that unsuitable placements can happen all the time, particularly when it is the child's first school placement and they can and do break down. I have no idea why OP's son has been excluded but I have known of kids as young as six violently attacking staff and other children, throwing their own excrement at children, vandalising school property in a dangerous way (eg breaking every window at child height) and the school will often exclude for a cooling off period to stop this behaviour escalating which is fair both on the excluded child who is careering out of control and on their classmates and the staff.

I believe strongly that every child has a place in the educational system and that everything possible should be done to integrate children with special needs into the mainstream if that is what they and their parents wish, but I do not believe that every school is able to meet the needs of every child, or that no child with special needs should ever be temporarily removed from a school if the situation demands it.

pigpen

I'd speak to the person dealing with the SEN provision at the local authority offices and may ring a special school with a behavioural unit (assuming his is a behaviour issue he has) and see if can make an appintment to speak to them about his placement. Take the statement and see if they can help you. I know the special schools here have been really helpful in keeping young children in mainsream education by providing the parents with the tools and contacts to ask for additional support.

The school is obviously just not willing or able to provide the support your son needs or deserves. He is still very young and I find this so sad the school are not willing to help him.

Have they offered any idea or information on what they feel might benefit him? Have you had any discussion with the senco?

jackieglasgow

I have a special needs child too Nicky, and I am sorry if you think my opinion is unhelpful, but if the local authority where I live had excluded my child several times, without offering any alternatives for him, and without any guidance or help on how best to help him then my Councillor MP and NAS would be where I would go next for advice. How is that unhelpful? I have seen violent children in school, and my first thought was "how would I help that child if it were my job?" Surely the system should be offering or looking for alternatives for this child, rather than let it get to the stage where a child of that age has missed over six weeks of schooling because he is uncontrollable within that particular setting? That IS the system's fault.

Wench

An Inclusion Officer hasnt been mentioned. and we definatly havent spoke to one.

We had a statement update last month ( annual review ) which stated he would be better off in small groups, and that his current school are unable to provide that

-Mini rant here - Actually, they could of, My son has had issues with school since nursery. and the school last year started up a 'Nurture Group' for other children in the school who have difficulties, However, this was set up a few weeks AFTER my sons statement became finalised, and the nurture group wont take my son because he's a statemented child :mad: - end rant -

The LEA is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, and have consistantly given conflicting advice to ourselves ( Husband and I ) and the school.

The SenCo involved hasnt shown any compassion towards my son, and is more bothered by finances. Because he's statemented ( as the mainstream school listed as school of choice* ) he's meant to have a set 22 hours schooling, also the school recieve funds to help with him, the plan being to hire a 1-2-1 support for him. Thats hasnt materialized.

*Current school is listed in the statement because none of the 3 schools that specialize with Behavioural & Emotinal support have space for him.

Despite the statement, he has always had a fixed exclusion of 5 days, regardless of what the incident was. Which I find unfair. Punishing a child who doesnt recall why he did what he did for 5 days is cruel in my opinion, I understand the school has to put the safety of its staff & pupils first. but.. I dont know, I'm at my wits end.

Wench

Sorry Nicky, Whats a PRU ?

Plans_all_plans

A Pupil Referral Unit I think.

Nicki

Wench wrote: »

Sorry Nicky, Whats a PRU ?

Pupil referral unit. They provide education for kids excluded for more than a short period. I think more than 5 days but that might be local not statutory.

If the school is rubbish, then being excluded might be the best thing for him to be honest. It then becomes the LA's problem to find him somewhere else more suitable, rather than him having a school on his statement which you as parents want to change.

Do you have a local Parents Advice Centre for kids with SEN? Each authority should have one and they should be able to advise you about local facilities and attitudes. Otherwise ACE and IPSEA both do telephone helplines and are very good in this kind of situation.