Home educating and 'special needs'

[TheLily]

Hello everyone

I'm a SAHM to 4 children ranging from 9mnths to 12,who is about to get stuck in with home educating my 3rd daughter Maia(4) who has Autism.
She had been at Pre-school with 1-2-1 support up until the Easter break and we had high hopes that she would enter mainstream and she had even been visiting daily but.....well after a catalogue of disasters that left her regressing and afraid we've made the choice to stay here at home!!!

Her statementing had begun but we have of course now made the decision to HE which a couple of staff members said would mean i wouild need to seek 'permission'(yes,they used that word)to homeschool her as it's 'illegal'(yes,that word too )to take her out and HE.

My question is,does the fact that the statementing process had begun affect things in any way shape or form?
I have drafted a letter for the local Lower school to request her name is removed from the register....do i need to do anything else at this stage regarding the statementing side of things?

[Annpan]

You are in England so you should contact Education Otherwise for assistance as they SHOULD know the legal ins and outs. There are plenty of parents of autistic children in HE, you will find a huge support network. I am sure you will find someone who has dealt with your LEA (local education authority) before too.




Word of warning for anyone in Scotland DO NOT use education otherwise, they have been known to give very poor advice (Scots law differs greatly in some aspects) which has resulted in prosecutions of parents and forceable schooling of children who had been removed from the system without the correct procedure.

ETA - in scotland you should use 'School House' instead.

[TheLily]

You are in England so you should contact Education Otherwise for assistance as they SHOULD know the legal ins and outs. There are plenty of parents of autistic children in HE, you will find a huge support network. I am sure you will find someone who has dealt with your LEA (local education authority) before too.




Word of warning for anyone in Scotland DO NOT use education otherwise, they have been known to give very poor advice (Scots law differs greatly in some aspects) which has resulted in prosecutions of parents and forceable schooling of children who had been removed from the system without the correct procedure.

ETA - in scotland you should use 'School House' instead.

Thanks for that!Just had a chat with a lovely lady who gave me lots of links and good advice

[red]

Her statementing had begun but we have of course now made the decision to HE which a couple of staff members said would mean i wouild need to seek 'permission'(yes,they used that word)to homeschool her as it's 'illegal'(yes,that word too )to take her out and HE.

My question is,does the fact that the statementing process had begun affect things in any way shape or form?
I have drafted a letter for the local Lower school to request her name is removed from the register....do i need to do anything else at this stage regarding the statementing side of things?

Hi Lily I HE my son who has special needs

you only need permission if you child is on the reg of a special school.if she is at special school then, you have to request to HE -but they have no right to refuse!!

the statementing process will not change your right to home educate at all. in fact as the statement is only enforcable in a school setting, it will not affect you at all.

take at look at HE-special.org - its far more useful than EO, and the forums are great and not overcrowded, and there are experts there who will confirm what I have said. I strongly recommend joining., its full of people doing the same thing.
home ed has been one of the best moves I made for my son.

feel free to pm me if you want.

[Clazbear]

Hi there,
I HE my 4 year old serverely Autistic son, I aslo HE my 7 year old daughter who, although not yet diagnosed with anything, has behavioural and learning difficulties.

My son was attending an intervention nursery with a view to mainstream first, then special needs school if that failed. Like yourself everything was going well, then he regressed and we decided to keep him at home. as he was never on a school register and we had not begun the process of any statement it was easy for us to keep him home without any interferance from the LEA.
Our daughter was in Y2 so we had to do the de-registering her from school, and the LEA have been round to see what provisions we have in place for her.

We got our letter the other day saying that they are satisfied with our provisions for her and don't need to visit again for 12 months.

I was wondering how it's been going for you these past few months and what dificulties you have hit and overcome?

Clare