this is my first post on here, please excuse me for any spelling mistakes or lack of punctuation,
my son Kayden was diagnosed with ASD when he was 2 1/2 hes now 5 and attends main stream school and is currently in reception, as he is still in nappies the school said they didn't have the facilitys or staff to be able to change his nappy so he was only attending till 11.30.
He now has a statement of special education needs as of January this year an is currently waiting for a placement at a special needs school, we are late for school everyday we get up at 7am but due to the fact Kayden has to be in a routine he finds it very hard in the morning to get up an ready he gets very frustrated and i refused to rush him as it will just escalate into him screaming an smacking himself and me.
School starts at 9am but he gets into school at 9.15/9.25 the latest he has been in is 9.35 but that's only been a few times his previous school to this one where he attended nursey was fine with him arriving late , the school he attends now was also fine with it when he started in September up until February when the head teacher retired an was replaced by a new head teacher who decided he could stay till 3pm and his one to one helper would be able to change his nappy the hours he attended had to be changed gradually over a period of two months and he now attends till 3pm
in February (when the new head teacher started) the school spoke to me about him being late an I explained the reasons why an they said I needed to improve on it an get him here by 9, obviously it hasn't happened an now they say there monitoring his attendance as its below 94% (even though he's never off except when he's really unwell like when he had chicken pox before the Xmas holidays ) there saying that when he's late past register closed which is 9.25 they mark it as a unauthorized absence so therefore he's absent in the morning even thought he's not an he is there, its really annoying me the schools good and he gets allot of help from his one to one helper (who has said herself dont worry about him being late etc) but this attendance thing is really upsetting me i understand that they have to mark him as absent but they also understand his needs and they've even said he can stay at the school for a while but in the long term he will have to attend a special needs school as they cant meet his education an mental needs, is there anybody that i can contact like an attendance officer or SEN department or even the councils educational psychologist for advice about dealing with this or has anybody been in a similar situation to this that could offer some advice
