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?

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?