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School suspension of a 5y child with ASD

NAS89194

Hi, 

My son has been suspended from school for a fix term of 2 days. I strongly believe this relates to his disability. School’s reason for suspension is due to repeated violence against staff. 
My son, not only he’s ASD diagnosed and the behaviour is related to that, he is also 5yrs old. He’s mental capabilities are not there yet to understand or to have any effect on him. No ehip plan is in the works yet, and school has agreed that proper strategies are not yet developed specifically for my son. I have sent a complaint to the governing body and of course their decision remained.

I tried to contact sendias, education law organisation, they take forever to contact me.

what can I do to help my son best from your point of view and/or experiences?

Parents
  • NAS89194 said:
    School’s reason for suspension is due to repeated violence against staff. 

    I would side with the school I'm afraid - violence, whatever the cause, is completely unacceptable for any staff member to have to tolerate, even from a 5 year old. Removal from school until the vilonce can be prevented is essential.

    The correct approach would be to identify the cause of the violence and work to prevent it in future. This is ideally done in conjunction with the schools team and it is possible this could take some time.

    The failings of the school to develop an EHIP plan is something they need to work on and I have seen this work at wildly different levels in different schools as it is not something many have the budget to have ready and waiting.

    This lack or resourcing is why I think everyone is taking as long as they are to get back to you and the root cause is the lack of education budget in a country that is getting more bankrupt by the year.

    Since the official support is failing then all you can effectively do is try to get some private support - possibly a child psychologist with a specialisation in autism and whatever related issues your son has. It won't be cheap.

    Sorry it isn't a better outlook, but this is a very tricky subject.

Reply
  • NAS89194 said:
    School’s reason for suspension is due to repeated violence against staff. 

    I would side with the school I'm afraid - violence, whatever the cause, is completely unacceptable for any staff member to have to tolerate, even from a 5 year old. Removal from school until the vilonce can be prevented is essential.

    The correct approach would be to identify the cause of the violence and work to prevent it in future. This is ideally done in conjunction with the schools team and it is possible this could take some time.

    The failings of the school to develop an EHIP plan is something they need to work on and I have seen this work at wildly different levels in different schools as it is not something many have the budget to have ready and waiting.

    This lack or resourcing is why I think everyone is taking as long as they are to get back to you and the root cause is the lack of education budget in a country that is getting more bankrupt by the year.

    Since the official support is failing then all you can effectively do is try to get some private support - possibly a child psychologist with a specialisation in autism and whatever related issues your son has. It won't be cheap.

    Sorry it isn't a better outlook, but this is a very tricky subject.

Children
  • in reply to Iain

      You may consider removing a five-year-old from school as "essential" ... I am afraid I don't, and more to the point, nor do the DfE and SENDIST.  The school has a duty to meet the child's needs... that includes having enough staff trained to handle a meltdown. The rules on exclusion are very specific about exclusions not being used because schools cannot meet a child's needs. They are generally illegal. There is a recent case law that states that where violence is a result of disability, the school must take this into consideration, including whether staff have had training in de-escalation, safe restraint etc.. In addition to any rights of appeal to the governors, the parent may also apply to SENDIST. The Tribunal may overturn a permanent exclusion, and will also rule on fixed term exclusions, although because of timescales etc. the parent probably needs to go to the governors first.

    The exclusion should trigger an EHP request by the school. If not, the parent can apply to the LEA themselves.