Home Educating and SEN/additional support needs.
There are a growing number of families choosing to Home Educate because their child’s needs are not being met in school. Some families feel like they have no choice, that it’s a last resort, others realise early on that their child will not thrive in a school environment. Whatever the reason, you are likely to find that Home Education allows you to support your child and quite often their needs change and you learn new ways to support them. They really can’t refuse if you can provide a suitable education, but we are hearing of many that are trying. Our suggestion is to contact us if the following doesn’t work. You can claim DLA/PIP for many children with special needs, also Carer’s Allowance for yourself. This gives you a little extra to help with the cost of living and Home Educating. It also relieves the pressure to find work, as you are not expected to look for work and care for your child. There are many support organisations available to help with filling in forms. Face 2 Face and Cerebra both offer support. There are so many different extra needs that we won’t go in to details here, but please do read some of the blogs that fellow Home Educators write: follow how they have over come hurdles, schools and their SEN team. Please do check out our SEN real-life section.The LA are refusing to let us deregister. HELP!
Follow our deregistration sample, detailing as much as possible about how you will provide a suitable education and how you will meet the child’s needs.
If they refuse, then quote the following (from the EHE guidance) to them and ask them to detail specifically which areas of the home education do they feel will not be suitable:
‘8.6 If a school already attended by a child is a special school and the child is attending it under arrangements made by the local authority, the local authority’s consent is necessary for the child’s name to be removed from the admission register, but this should not be a lengthy or complex process and consent must not be withheld unreasonably. If the child is to be withdrawn to be educated at home then the local authority, in deciding
whether to give consent, should consider whether the home education to be provided would meet the special educational needs of the child, and if it would, should give consent. However, that consideration should take into account the additional difficulties of providing education at home to a child whose special educational needs are significant enough to warrant a place at a special school’ Disability Living Allowance/Personal Independence Payment