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School invoicing for broken ipad ? fair or not

devonmum
over 5 years ago

Dear all

I just want to test the waters with this one. My 6 year old son is in mainstream school with an EHCP and 1:1. He has profound sensory issues and when dysregulated can bite done on hard objects. This rarely happens and has not happened in school until last week, when he bit down on an ipad. The response of school is to invoice us for the cost of replacing. Is this reasonable. To me it feels inherently unfair as the damage was not intentional and a direct result of his dysregulation. Furthermore I do not have an understanding of what happened before to lead to this outcome?? 

I have told the school that I think an investigation of what happened should be there immediate course of action rather than asking for money. They disagree.

Any thoughts welcome..

Thank you

  • over 5 years ago

    The answer to this is yes.

    There are times when I believe that if the cost of damage to public sector property is not paid then it can be slapped onto income tax or benefits.

    You wouldn't believe how many expensive medical devices are damaged by patients in hospitals, and under (outdated?) NHS policy it's the taxpayer who pays to repair the damage rather than the patient.

    BTW. I don't pay charges for parking tickets issued by councils, APCOA etc. or take any notice of letters issued by debt collectors or fake solicitors on their behalf.

  • over 5 years ago

    I’m pretty sure that the school would have insurance to cover the cost of replacement, breakages happen in schools. And yes it does sound a bit unfair if it was as a result of his disability 

  • over 5 years ago

    Hi as others have said check school policy on student breakages. I know at our school it is discretionary so if a genuine accident then parents don't get billed but if the school feel behaviour was to blame we do. I can see why the school are billing you as in black and white he bit it and broke it, that said as he has 1:1 support it should not have got to the point that he was so disregulated that he did it

     I think asking the school to investigate what happened is reasonable even if it's to stop it happening again, and if it turns out it could have been prevented then I think you have grounds to argue maybe suggest 50/50 split? Just an idea good luck

  • over 5 years ago

    Hi there. I'd be interested to know if this is standard school policy and is advertised as such. If it is, then it's the same for all children within the school then unfortunately it looks like you may have to pay to replace it.  If not then they are not fair to make you pay.  How can it be classed as unbiased and fair if not? 

    Hope that makes sense Blush

  • over 5 years ago in reply to Deleted user

    Thank you it is good to hear other peoples views

  • over 5 years ago

    That's a debatable issue. Schools have a huge lack of funding at the moment so they are not going to be wanting to pay out for every broken iPad. It may not have been intentional but there is no doubt the iPad was broken by your son. I'm not sure fair would be the word I'd use but I think the school are well within their rights to ask for the money. It is hard as your son obviously didn't do it to break the iPad. Could he be given a hard chew and taught he can bite down on that but not other objects?