Insurance

ar4nas said:

I would have thought the School should have their own insurance for such incidents but apparantently not. 

I suspect the insurance would cover the initial events where damage was caused but now that a pattern has been discovered and the damage can be avoided (by removing your grand child) then the insurance company will say any damage is avoidable so won't cover it.

This is probably why they have started invoicing.

Have you considerd working with a child psychologist (needs experience of autistic kids) to work with your grandchild? I suspect you, like almost all of us, lacks the experience and skills to help modify the childs behaviour and it will take a specialist to achieve this safely.

Something you may also need to consider is what happens if you cannot modify their behaviour. Do they get expelled, sent to a special needs school, require home schooling etc - understanding the alternatives and researching them will save a lot of stress if the situation is suddenly presented to you.

The parents of the child should be working with the schools SENCO (special edicational needs co-ordinator) about this issue and the school should hopefully be talking about options with the parents. 

Unless you are the guardian of the child then I don't think you would be involved in any of this so hopefully the parents have it in hand.

I had a look for public liability insurance and couldn't find anything for covering the childs actions I'm afraid - it all seems to be based around adults working with children or autistic adults themselves.

It may be worth contacting some insurance brokers and asking them this directly as it could be you need a specially built policy.

The fact that there is a known risk which is highly probable (you say the damage is routine) would probably mean it would be excluded from the policy as it is not economic for them to cover such a blatant risk. However it won't do any harm to ask.

Good luck.

ar4nas said:

I would have thought the School should have their own insurance for such incidents but apparantently not. 

I suspect the insurance would cover the initial events where damage was caused but now that a pattern has been discovered and the damage can be avoided (by removing your grand child) then the insurance company will say any damage is avoidable so won't cover it.

This is probably why they have started invoicing.

Have you considerd working with a child psychologist (needs experience of autistic kids) to work with your grandchild? I suspect you, like almost all of us, lacks the experience and skills to help modify the childs behaviour and it will take a specialist to achieve this safely.

Something you may also need to consider is what happens if you cannot modify their behaviour. Do they get expelled, sent to a special needs school, require home schooling etc - understanding the alternatives and researching them will save a lot of stress if the situation is suddenly presented to you.

The parents of the child should be working with the schools SENCO (special edicational needs co-ordinator) about this issue and the school should hopefully be talking about options with the parents. 

Unless you are the guardian of the child then I don't think you would be involved in any of this so hopefully the parents have it in hand.

I had a look for public liability insurance and couldn't find anything for covering the childs actions I'm afraid - it all seems to be based around adults working with children or autistic adults themselves.

It may be worth contacting some insurance brokers and asking them this directly as it could be you need a specially built policy.

The fact that there is a known risk which is highly probable (you say the damage is routine) would probably mean it would be excluded from the policy as it is not economic for them to cover such a blatant risk. However it won't do any harm to ask.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. He gets suspended every other week.  He has ADHD+ Autism+PDA. We are home educating mornings because school can't cope and say they have no staff to supervise him. He has just had an ehcp issued but the school have already said they will not be able to comply with it and are on a mission at the moment to permanently exclude him. The county coucil have also said there are no places available .in special schools at all and if he does get excluded it could be 6-9 months before they find a place. Riduculous situation really.