Too many children with Special Educational Needs excluded from school says new report

A report published by the Children’s Commissioner for England today says that far too many children with special educational needs are excluded from school. The report confirms that children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabled children are still over eight times more likely to be permanently excluded than their peers

The report makes a number of recommendations which Contact a Family agrees with to help reduce the number of children with SEN who are excluded from school. These include:

• ensuring teachers receive much better initial teacher training in special education needs - currently, most teachers receive very little initial training or continuing professional development in how to engage children with specific types of SEN or disability
• if a child with statement is at risk of exclusion then a review of the child’s statement should be triggered

The report also shows that Academies continue to have a significantly higher permanent exclusion rates than maintained schools. Academies currently have control of the exclusion appeal process in a way that maintained schools do not. Although Academies are accountable to the Secretary of State through their funding agreement, no mechanisms exist to ensure they are meeting their contractual obligations in relation to exclusions. This is something that Contact a Family would like to see addressed and agrees with the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s report when it argues that clarity is urgently needed about the role of the Education Funding Agency, the Department for Education and the Secretary of State in relation to Academy complaints if parents or their children have a grievance.

Contact a Family has recently launched a service supporting families to resolve education issues for children with special educational or additional needs. The SEN National Advice Service provides parents with advice and information on any aspect of their child’s education – including exclusion. Help is available through our helpline 0808 808 3555, or post a query on Facebook or Twitter and a SEN adviser will get back to you. Alternatively drop us an email: helpline@cafamily.org.uk

Article taken from Contact A Family