Help advice needed for court action

The situation with secondary technical college, 6th form and FE colleges is alarming. Of course funding has again changed putting many colleges on the margins of survival. But they never did really "get" with disability support, whereas the universities were coerced and embarrassed into it. So you really do get colleges that expect young people on the autistic spectrum to free fall.

I don't know the answer either.... Since the impetus to provide effective support infrastructures has been treated as optional, there doesn't seem to be any way now of turning things round.

However if they accept someone on the autistic spectrum the legal principal that entails still applies. If you don't provide reasonable support, that young person has committed  available funding, and opportunities to complete within a timescale, by going to that college. Having to change or start again is a big decision. They shouldn't have the option, as you neatly put it, of "their way or the highway". Your son went there expecting they would understand autism needs and has been misled. It should be exactly the same as buying a food mixer that only grinds coffee.

Similarly I don't think the local authority can be that inflexible.

You should be able to ask if quiet places are provided, for special needs purposes, or if the only space for recovery is noisy communal space.

Restaurants nowadays are fast food orientated, fast turnover, very crowded, piped music, weirdly insensitive accoustics - just not a healthy space for someone on the spectrum. Other informal space can be equally noisy and crowded. What is needed is safe space for vulnerable young people to adjust, without fear of covert abuse they cannot even escape in public space.

Which gets me back to bullying. The bullying I refer to is taking advantage of someone with a disability or using them for entertainment. That can be pretty covert. It might call itself a technical college but is probably just as difficult as a school. If you have to be in certain places at certain times, and for a spell there is no teacher around, if you are different, you really do get picked on. In a real college you can be in another corridor or safe place without having to explain why you are there.

If it is a technical college as distinct from a school, why the rigidity over not turning up at all if not on time. That's just school with a fancy name - or there is some kind of fiddle on costs. If they are so strict why call it a college? And if they are too inflexible for special needs why isn't the local authority offering alternatives.

A lot of the performance stuff in places like that has nothing to do with the children's best interests but the school getting awards or other sorts of brownie points. What is education actually for?

Thank you for your replies, I found them reassuring as I am already thinking along similar lines.  In terms of his education I know in time he will find his feet as he is a bright young man - I think a college place would suit him really well.  For now I just need to get him to place where he is settled, whilst satisfying the local authority.  I was already thinking that if I do have to educate him myself that it will be a challenge and I will need to be inventive.  I was thinking a holistic approach of various inputs via college, internet, tutor etc might work - we will see!

I don't think he is being bullied as such, the school a technical college opened in September and I think they are trying to establish themselves with very high standards in terms of appearance and education and it's either their way or the highway, with no compromise, they also have virtually no budget for SEN.  It is this culture that my Son is struggling with. For example he has not been sleeping of a night and so getting him up in the morning has proven difficult, I told the school this but they said if he was not there on time, he was not to come in at all! When I challenged my Son to get there on time his answer was not to go to bed at all, so he was attending school without having any sleep.  The point is everyone agrees that this school is not the right place but the despite is having a detrimental affect the local authority insist he attends until another provision is found. 

Also interesting point about sexual identity - this is something we have also picked up on.  I guess it's another area which like any social interaction for someone on the spectrum can be confusing.

I will certainly try the help line and other avenues you mention - Thank you.

I agree with what I think Coogybear is saying about timescales. You may need to consider taking longer over all his academic milestones. With autistic spectrum the pressure of doing all these things is vastly greater than for non-autistic kids, and having a longer term objective might be better all round.

Although diagnosed much later in life my education was severely affected by the pressure and an horrendous amount of bullying, so my lower and higher grade exams were a mess - mass failure on the first and resits delayed the second phase, with little progress either. I left school with considerably more fails than passes. I went back into education at 21, quickly found enough confidence to get not only a good first degree but a PhD and a career involving both Research & Development and university teaching (agreed, not without further hitches).

I hope Coogybear's son finds a re-awakening. The contrast between myself as a teenager and in my 20s was staggering for me as much as others, many doubters looking on. While phobic at the moment hopefully his thirst for knowledge gains the upper hand.

I think you have to think of education with autistic spectrum being potentially staggered. Great if it all goes smoothly, but allow for interruptions. Also job prospects are affected, and doing well academically can be undermined by subsequent lack of employment opportunities, so expecting everything to go through according to the schedule is not necessarily a sound objective.

Hi Hopeful,

  I'm not sure If my advice would of help, but I do appreciate the difficulty with keeping a child in Education who is so unhappy.

The trouble is that the childs mental well-being is clearly being compromised by his poor provision. Have you spoken to IPSEA for advice or even the NAS helpline. I'd be tempted to ring around and get advice from independant bodies who can guide you.

No parent wants to be taken to court, but if some of your son's absences are occuring due to exclusion marks as well, then it can hardly be counted can it? To be sure I'd be tempted to obtain a copy of his attenance records from the School and check his recorded absences due to non-attandance, against his exclued periods initiated by the School, to be sure this hasn't exagerated the picture.

Additionally, if you have evidence that formally he had 100% attendance at his old School, it's clear somethings not right in his current placement. If you are made to attend court, this may be the evidence you could present. along with the evidence of his needs that appears to be missing. 

It's a tough call as a parent because of the year he's in, but it's also a difficult year for transfer to another School or his prospective exams. Couple this with the onging issues with grooming you mention and it's not surprizing he's in meltdown. Do you really have any other option than to withraw him? I feel you've almost answered your own questions.

Exams can be taken at any time, however, prolonged ill-provision can mean your son is at risk of becoming totally education phobic, as happened to my son. (His provison was so poor at FE that he will now never return to any form of education. A tragic loss for a gifted and once knowledge hungry child.) 

Is their evidence to suggest your son would be self-motivated enough to conclude his studies from a home-schooled environment? If so, it may be an option worth considering. Personally, I wouldn't feel able to support my son at secondary School level, although I did at primary and it was the right thing to do for my children. 

If you do feel able to support your son, check with your LA's EOTAS dept (Education otherwise than at School) and see what's involved. It's not for the faint hearted and needs to be considered carefully if he's to enter exams externally, but also with regard to your own families financial position. If you can afford it, a day a week with a private tutor, will ease the burden on you.

Do factor in down time for yourself if you do consider home-Schooling. The volume may be turned down on his meltdowns by home educating, but wearing the hat of both teacher and parent can be pretty taxing. At primary level I found a good measure of field trips to support the study did much to reinforce and consoldate what we studied in the morning, but this may not be feasible at his stage at Secondary level.

Also, contact your local parents group for hom -education and talk to some of the parents their that have youngsters at a similar age or with similar difficulties. They are often a great support for resources and bring together like-minded parents and children.

I wish you all the best at this difficult time, but mostly for your son.  

Is he being bullied?  Fifteen is about a likely age to be out of step with an adolescent peer group and being picked on for being different.

Schools often have rather narrow understandings of bullying - bigger kids in extortion of younger etc. There still seems to be little progress in understanding the kind of bullying inflicted on children and teenagers on the autistic spectrum, often outwardly less obvious and out of sight of the teachers.

If you are different, less able to determine the nature of social interchanges, and easily stressed, kids can be mighty good at exploiting that vulnerability for a laugh, and it often involves many against one. Someone on the autistic spectrum can be "good entertainment" for peers who might not otherwise be identified as bullies.

You also mention an incident involving 'grooming'. Young people on the spectrum may be ambiguous in their sexuality and their perception of sexual identity, being unable to benefit from social interaction within their peer group, and easily isolated and exploited. There just isn't enough understanding of this, and young people on the spectrum in sexual identity crisis really are left to fend for themselves because it is such a taboo subject. What I'm saying is the grooming incident may point to other forms of "difference" in relation to his peer group.

The school has duties towards your son. If they know he has a diagnosis of asperger's they cannot simply exclude him because having an awkward disabled pupil doesn't suit them. If the school enrolled him knowing his condition the school needs to demonstrate that they have acted properly and with due consideration for his disability, so it is worth challenging their attitude. But it is important to get the right advice - eg NAS help line, or a community advocacy service, or a solicitor with autism insight (NAS website has a list of suitable solicitors - just finding it is the problem).

Schools will try to blank out parental concern and assert their autocratic and self aggrandised perception of their knowledge. Test their knowledge of autism.