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Fine For Poor Attendance ASD Child

leanne35

Hello,

I received a penalty notice yesterday for £60 with regards to my sons poor attendance. He attends an SEMH school some 25 miles away from our home and uses county transport to collect him at 7.30am. He does not really like the school and on some days will refuse to attend due to a variety of reasons (tiredness, anxiety, defiant behaviour).  On average he will attend 3 days out of 5.

I have acknowledge the issue with the school some time ago now. I even asked for a meeting with the educational psychologist  which happened but was not really fruitful.

I appreciate schools and the local authority have the right to do this but given that he has a diagnosis of ASD, his school is so far away and it is n SEMH school I would have thought they would have been more accommodating. His EHCP review was a few weeks ago and his attendance was acknowledged in the plan.

I operate a strict routine with him at bedtime and in the morning to ensure he is up at the appropriate time and ready to leave at 7.30am. I don't just lie in bed and leave him to his own devices. I am also rather annoyed with this as the local authority were more than happy for him to miss the whole of year 7 while they dragged their heels in finding him a school (I didn't agree with their placement). I know it takes time to find a school but a whole year!!????

Its only a £60 fine but the principle of it is what annoys me the most. Short of dragging the boy to the cab at 7.30am, kicking and screaming, in which case that would some form of child abuse, what more can I do. I feel so let down, I honestly thought the school would at least work with me. If anyone has any advice on this I'd be grateful. I will be contacting a solicitor too.

Many thanks, enjoy the  sun!

Rae

  • Hi Rae,

    If you're having a dispute with your son's school and/our local education authority, you might want to look into contacting the Education Rights Service which is provided by NAS - http://www.autism.org.uk/services/helplines/education-rights.aspx 

    The ERS provides impartial and confidential information and support to families on school education rights and entitlements. Hopefully they might be able to give you some advice on how to proceed, along with your solicitor.

    Best wishes,

    Ross - mod

  • I quite agree with you here, this seems very unfair to you in the circumstances.

    I missed a lot of school myself, but thankfully my mum was never fined (though she was threatened). Perhaps that’s because I was involved with mental health services at the time and I was very vocal about the fact that I shouldn’t have had to attend school when it was damaging my mental health so much, when adults with workplace stress are signed off sick!

    I agree with you going to a solicitor, and I would suggest making the points you have above to the local authority in writing and then see what they have to say about it. Surely it could even be argued that your child should be allowed to attend school less as a reasonable adjustment. Either way, if you are doing your best to get him to school and it’s still not happening, then it’s not your fault he’s missing shcooling. You could even blame the local authority for this - why haven’t they provided home tutors if he is struggling to attend due to health reasons? I certainly wouldn’t pay the fine on principle.