Indirect exclusion/discrimination

Hi LaSpooney,

I really sympathize with your current situation especially as you have obviously spent alot of time previously weighing up all the options.

You have quite rightly identified a clear case of incompetency. The head teacher has clearly not behaved in a professional manner. Any educator who blaitantly shouts that inclusion has no place in a modern school is clearly out of touch. 

When you do start your complaints process longmans important point about the school accepting your child initially could be key. The schools senior public representative (head teacher) failed in effect to provide what the school had agreed to provide i.e. adequate supported education for your child.

I would agree that something does need to be done if only to prevent reoccurance with someone else. Longmans advice in this area seems very logical.

It really is a lottery finding the right school for your child and I have spoke to others in the past who have experienced similar problems with mainstream education to yourself (albeit not quite as extreme).

That special needs school you mention does not sound ideal and unfortunately their just aren't enough good special units about.  Those that do exist have lengthy waiting lists. Same old story: Lack of funding, lack of good provision.

We are lucky in that we do have a good local school with an excellent special unit. Take heart and know that good provision is out there although it isn't always easy to find. You probably have a good idea what you expect from a good school but i've described our sons unit below if this is any help.

The unit classroom is bright and packed with learners creative work.

One wall has been specifically set up as a sensory wall to stimulate the children.

The 'chill out' room is pleasant and safe with large cushions scattered about. You are understandably concerned with the idea of a segragated room but in my experience the children welcome the opportunity to occassionally blow off some steam in isolation and when used alongside a good behaviour management strategy (teacher calmly talking through what has occurred with the child) leads to long term social benefits.

Staff maintain a written diary to record progress along with any behaviour issues and this is sent home to parents daily where written input is encouraged from parents and acted upon if appropriate.

Staff show a real interest in the children and have a good understanding of ASD and individuals (important) needs. They also recognise and nuture the aspirations and strengths ASD kids often possess.

The focus is on building on the strengths of the children whilst providing appropriate support. As a result the children become more confident and happy  making regular progress. As an example our son enjoys reading (books are one of his special interests and our home has more books than the local library). To build on his interest and joy of reading part of each school day is set aside for him to read to the class. This builds his social confidence and develops his reading.

Schools that tend not to provide adequate ASD provision generally just don't understand the condition and as a consequence don't see the potential in many ASD kids.

I am sure that if you persist you will find an option that fits your family best and it is encouraging that you still have a number of possibilities to look at.

Best of luck and stay strong

By the way, even if it is not your intention to attempt to find a legal situation the Governors will have a fair idea, or their legal advisers, without you having to give any indication of intent.

They accepted your child after diagnosis.

You may have passed up a better opportunity when chosing their school

You and your child have experienced distress during the ensuing months, whereby having accepted your child they have then placed obstacles in your way.

You will be inconvenienced financially etc in trying to find another school.

The Governors will understand or can quickly find out the implications. The head, I suspect, is not the brightest, and the legal issues probably haven't crossed her mind.

It doesn't matter if you've no wish to get involved in legal resolution. Don't give anything away one way or the other. Get someone legally qualified to format a very simple letter personally from you, and let them sweat.

It might be useful as an interim measure to write to the Governors and ask if the school has a policy opposing mainstream education of children on the autistic spectrum. Explain in one sentence that you have been told they cannot support your child and you are being inconvenienced finding another school. Ask if it is their policy not to offer such children a place if they could make this clear on their website.

Indeed what does their website say about special education needs provision? If it is ambiguous point this out.

But keep your letter short, concise and good natured. Don't raise any details. I suspect the school cannot refuse to take AS children. But if it hasn't covered for this, just asking the simple question may be just as effective as any detailed complaint.

They will obviously ask the head for an explanation. But as you've said nothing recriminatory, just asked a simple question without inference, she will have to make some defence.

If they don't let on what is in your letter she may assume it is a complaint and say all kinds of things she shouldn't and may place the school in a situation where they have to takle action without involving you at all.

Clean, simple, brief without prejudice questions often speak volumes. If in doubt get a legally qualified person advise you on the "without prejudice" format. It means saying as little as possible and leaving others to read between the lines what might follow - eg legal action. That is entirely up to their imagination. You just ask a very simple question.

Hi Spadger

Thank you ever so much for the detailed and considered view that you have provided which is particularly useful and interesting as you can look at the situation both as the parent of ASD kids and also as an education professional.

I think when the issue of special schools was first raised in September, we were more in shock than anything else and, at that time, there was definitely an element of stigma.  However, we did investigate the issue of special schools and also a mainstream school with a SALT unit attached to it.  The special school provision for children of our son's age in our area is beyond awful in that there is just so little available.  The Ed Psych basically advised us that the local autism school was really just for life skills with the absolute bare minimum of academic provision.  Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that academically he may never achieve very much at all, if anything, but let's not give up hope of any academic potential when he's only just turned 5!

There is an NAS special school about 40 minute's drive away which I am very interested in looking at but it only takes pupils from age 7 so, obviously, that is 2 years away yet.  I was, however, dismayed to be told by the Ed Psych on Tuesday that as it is not in our area the council won't fund our son's education there.  I have since been told he's wrong.  Confused.com.

I am convinced that we will need to look at special schools when our son reaches transition stage.  I am also pretty sure that he will be best provided for in a special school as a junior.  At the moment though, the combination of there being nothing available by way of a suitable special school locally for his age group together with the fact that he managed so well in a mainstream nursery for 3 years, leads us to believe that at the moment, a special school is not appropriate.

We did, however, visit the SALT unit with the mainstream school in January and were quite shocked at the unit because it was so drab and uninspiring.  I fully accept that we were looking at it as non autistic people but we were both particularly concerned about the break-out room which was like a large cupboard but made me think of solitary confinement in Alcatraz.  The lady who runs the unit was very pleasant and informative and she explained that the room is used for managing aggressive behaviour and works well for a lot of the kids.  We are a bit worried though that our little boy might get shut in there if he won't do as he's told rather than when he is aggressive (which he isn't).

We are, however, going to re-visit the SALT unit with someone from the communication and interaction service to get another chance to look at it properly.  We are also going to visit two or three other mainstream infant/primary schools over the next few weeks, one of which is a third of the size of our son's current school and has a traditional classroom environment.  Where he is at present has what they call a "freeflow" so there's three separate classes but they are all interlinked and sometimes there are 85 odd kids charging round.

I have heard before the argument that mainstream inclusion is cheaper but bearing in mind the cost of all the one-to-one statement support for special needs kids to attend mainstream schools, is it really that much cheaper?

The head admitted from the outset that she doesn't agree with mainstream inclusion.  In my view she ought to make all the necessary long term effort required within the profession to bring about change in policy.  I appreciate it won't come about overnight and it may be that she is in the minority.  Her own views on inclusion do not entitle her to take out her frustration with national education policy on a small vulnerable child who is 5 years of age, can't speak and is autistic.  This is the reason that I will be formally complaining about her.

You are absolutely right about the upset and anger and, believe you me, if you saw the first draft it probably contains every negative adjective within the English language that could be applied to a(n excuse for a) human being!  The draft is going to be left for a while because, as you rightly say, the most important thing is to make the very difficult decision about where is best for our son to be educated at this point in time. 

I am not offended at all by what you have said and can only thank you again for all the time and effort you have taken to share your thoughts.

Kind regards

Hi Moonraker

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and providing me with the excellent website links which provide loads of really useful stuff.

I am going to challenge the head by way of reporting her to the Governors even though she is one of them herself (would that happen in any other profession!)  I will also involve the LEA and probably move up the complaints procedure as and when each stage concludes she can do whatever she likes!  A cynic, moi?!

Kind regards

Hi Longman

I just wanted to thank you for your helpful comments and taking the time to give your views;  I really appreciate it.

I have spoken this evening to an NAS education adviser who has been excellent and given some very positive and practical recommendations which include, as you have said, to challenge the head by way of reporting her to the board of governors and the LEA even though the former includes the so-called head teacher!

Kind regards

This is a difficult question to answer for someone on the outside of the situation. It is clear you are very upset and frustrated with your situation and at times like this it is easy to make a decision based on emotion rather than rational thought.

Whilst I agree with standing up against discrimination in society I would be careful that the way you are feeling does not distract you from the bigger issue, i.e. getting the best education for your child.

To do this I think you need to temporarily disregard your recent negative experiences and try look at the bigger picture. Is it possible that the head may have a valid point when she says the school cannot provide what your child needs? Have you considered that your child may actually be better off with dedicated support in a special needs environment?

I have had three children with varying degrees of ASD, two of which went to mainstream and the youngest (11) is in a special unit within a mainstream school. He is highly intelligent and sometimes other people do not realise he is autistic because of the progress he has made over the last 5 years.

A couple of years ago it was suggested that he be moved into mainstream but my partner and I insisted he stay in the dedicated unit. Our decision was based on the belief and evidence that focused support was (and still is) resulting in amazing progress which will pay dividends later. I strongly believe that my two adult sons, who have Aspergers, would have benefitted from non-mainstream education at some point but we where not given the opportunity at the time nor had the foresight to push for it. 

I know each family has a different set of very different individual circumstances but my point is that it can only be beneficial to stop and think outside the box for a while.

Perhaps try to back up a bit to question your current views before you progress along your current path. Ask yourself honestly why you are making the choices that you are. For example do you believe that special education is stigmatizing and will impact on your relationships with others? I know my partner and I did experience these feelings initially but feeling his way may sometimes cloud judgements.

The bottom line is it doesn't matter how many rights our children are supposed to have to an inclusive education in mainstream, in reality it will always be a lesser education provision because of its very mainstream nature.

Although, I agree with government spin, inclusive practice in mainstream education is a PC, ethical approach, its biggest benefit is no doubt as a cost saving exercise.

As a teacher I apply inclusive practice at every appropriate opportunity as society dictates and this is generally a good thing. In practice both at work and on a personal level I have concluded that this appraoch has its limitations and for many with special needs it is more appropriate to choose specialist (more expensive) care to provide more effective long term benefits to the learner.

I hope that I have not offended you in any way as this is not my intention. It is always difficult making decisions relating to our children and I believe that it can only be a good thing if we look at as many poissibilities, view points as possible.

Best of luck

I totally agree, challenge her, they are breaking the law and make my blood boil!

I live in Scotland and had to take the legal route to get the education my son needed and deserved and I would do it all over again if I had to. The jargon and system is a bit different here but I've had a look on the internet and found a couple of websites of organisations that could give you guidance (I'm assuming you live in England as SENCO and Statements are English terms):

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

www.parentpartnership.org.uk/

Also speak to the Education Rights Service here at NAS:

www.autism.org.uk/.../Education-rights-service.aspx

I would echo what Longman has suggested and keep a diary of things that have happened, details of conversations etc, keep copies of all correspondence and minutes of any meetings.

There are laid down procedures for complaints and so they will have to follow them.

I wish you lots of luck and stay strong.

Given how easily this one person has turned things upside down for you, it may be necessary, however inconvenient to make a stand, so this head cannot do the same to others. At the same time you need to consider your child's best interests.

Hopefully NAS has some ideas on how to proceed. Have you kept detailed documentation of events, exchanges and especially anything written down?

I think this shows also what can happen in the workplace for adults on the spectrum. It only needs one person determined to get the problem worker out of the team, never mind Disability Equality, by every means of undermining. That after all is what this head is doing. A child with AS threatens her performance ratings, and her promotion prospects. Exposure of her callousness is probably a good thing for all concerned.

The other thing that comes to mind is whether this head is herself affected by disability, if not A.S. maybe something else that she feels wasn't attended to for her salvation, so seeks to visit on young children the resentment she feels about her own life. 

It sounds to me like someone who needs to be challenged.