rainbows

I recently emailed ed balls of my complaints and was referred to the special needs/disability people,cant remember her name off hand...i'll have to check if this is the same department then...they wrote to my lea ,and i have the response of them ,exactly the same as they gave stewart jackson,rubbish!

They have lied,they told both my son receives tuition--lie...my son did have a tutor but no school base found so went to cafes and shops.

Funny tho...a few days later...he;s got the school base.

Another thing he lea said..my son cannot participate in any activity with another child.I rang the head of his last school who said he,himself had played with my son and other children at the same time without problems.

I asked him to put this in writing.Nothing yet..im suspicious now of the delay..think he's scared to tread on the lea's toes..

The nas have said i can complain to my local odbudman,who may investigate.

Im nervous tho...im about to deal with the tribunal team and the thought of dealing with an odbudsman worries me further.But the fact is,they have lied to my mp and to the childrens department.I feel i should make this complaint.
Afterall ,the lea cannot name a shoolbase where they say he was receiving tuition at the time they sent out these letters.

Vote please.....do i make that official complaint despite the added stress it will place on me?

Carey2

Use every avenue open to you,the ombudsman (or person ) is their to make an impartial investigation of your complaint and is not someone to be afraid of or worried about.

Just state your case,show the evidence and let them take it from there, they will not be officious or critical of you,their job is to listen to both sides and make a judgement on the evidence provided.

The NAS advisor would probably be able to help you with what you need to present to them.

__________________
Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise,trouble or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

noelle

Our family has moved quite a bit so we've been through many school districts. Currently, Nick is sorta graduated high school. It has been a constant struggle... In the past we've had to bring legal charges to a school in Virginia who attempted to label him as retarded (nick also had a drooling problem at the time due to epileptic medication.) But this was the worst case possible in my opinion... the school was forcing the special education children to enter a door to the school separate from the normal children. They didn't believe in the classroom integration system at all. It was segregation.

We've fought with schools to allow him the opportunity to be involved in school sports and arts as well. Nick loves to sing, but they wouldn't let him in the choirs - we sought out of school opportunities including drumming lessons and voice lessons (out of our own pocket.) finally, he started in Track and Field as well as Cross Country when he got into high school, but even that we had to fight for him to be allowed to participate. we knew that a team sport wouldn't be good, but with running, it's an individual based sport which there is still the social surroundings of a team- and we felt that social interaction despite his problems would be vital to his survival in life. When the school (this is in New Hampshire) attempted to discipline him by threatening his participation in school sports, we had to intervene, as this would have done nothing but cause problems.

Finally, when we were able to get an official diagnosis with all the paperwork, we had a better idea of just what he needed in his IEP. Problem is, and perhaps this is similar to what others have experienced, the schools take a look at the IQ test scores and make a predetermination about him. I don't think there is enough information in regards to autistic spectrum disorders that you really can't make a basis off the IQ test scores. And what we've experienced is that (specifically in California) they would have to change their ideas about who Nick is and what he needs because his IQ score does not accurately reflect his needs.

Even though many times they have met his educational needs, they have not met the behavioral and social needs. We've taken advantage of the local regional center... although they too have fallen short in certain areas... Nick was supposed to be provided Behavior Therapy in home which for the small time that it was happening, it was a great improvement.

Although the schools, now that he was in high school about to graduate promised a job program and they have done nothing but failed at following through, nor have they been willing to progress his education past what he has already learned. If you don't know, we went through a large fight here in California in regards to graduation requirements. There is now a proficiency exam that California students must pass in order to graduate. This test would be given with absolutely no provisions for individuals with disabilities. This would have included as per his IEP extra time on exams, a calculator for math problems and such. They call it the CASHEE. And if he couldn't pass it, then they would have only given him a certificate of completion... well that wasn't good enough for us. He deserved his high school diploma- he might have problems but Nick is a very hard working student... gets very upset if he gets any grade below a B- example... in New Hampshire they tried to do some role playing with him and the rest of his class mates.. the teachers handed out pretend report cards... they were told that they were pretend, but Nick has no concept of pretend. Upon getting the pretend report card, he saw an F on the card and got very agitated and upset overthrowing his desk. They realized that he couldn't understand the idea of role playing pretend.

Well right now, we're going to refuse taking his actual diploma by hand... because we feel that there is still quite a bit more that the school district can do for him while he is starting his higher education... like help expenses for college programs and tutoring. We'll see how that goes, but my mother says considering they have failed to meet his IEP, she's not going to let them just throw him away.