[De-registering a child from Special School]
Becky Chambers is a happy lively 7 year old with a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. She attended a special needs nursery from an early age, moving up to a Special School at five. Becky has had a statement of SEN’s since she was five.
Becky’s parents have two younger children and had always planned to Home Educate their family. The two younger children never attended nursery or school and their education is autonomous. This is how the Chambers family choose to bring up their children.
Now that their other children are around compulsory education age, Mr and Mrs Chambers have linked in with their local community of Home Educators and are surprised to find that there are families successfully Home Educating children with Asperger Syndrome just like Becky.
The Chambers family had gone along with the plan to send Becky to the special needs nursery, then Special School, because they believed that they had no choice. Once they knew they did have a choice they realised that they wanted to change the way their daughter was educated.
After researching the best way to provide for their daughter's special needs outside of the Special School system Mr and Mrs Chambers started the process of withdrawing Becky from her Special School
De-registering a child from a Special School is different than de-registering a child from a mainstream school. Mr and Mrs Chambers needed to ask their LEA for consent for Becky’s name to be taken off the school register. After discussing their plans with the Headteacher at the school, Mr Chambers wrote a letter to the LEA:
To the Director of Education
Dear
Re. Rebecca Anita Chambers - 04/05/1991 - Yr3 School Street Special School
We are writing as the parents of the above named child, who is a child for whom the LEA currently maintains a statement of special educational needs and who is a registered pupil at School Street Special School, School St, NorthernTown.
After very careful consideration, and following amicable discussions with staff and teachers from the above named school, we have now decided to take full responsibility for providing for our daughter’s education, ‘otherwise than at school’ in accordance with section 7 of the 1996 Education Act.
We therefore seek the consent of the Local Education Authority to allow Rebecca’s name to be deleted from the admission register of the school, in accordance with Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(2) 2006. Once consent has been given we will provide our daughter with an efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability, aptitude and to her special educational needs.
We look forward to consent for Rebecca’s name to be deleted from the admission register being given to the proprietor of School Street Special School in the very near future and request that confirmation of such action be forwarded to us within the next 14 days.
Yours faithfully
Mr and Mrs P.T. Chambers
In this case the consent was received within the time stated, and Becky was able to be Home Educated alongside her brother and sister.
Families do not always have such an easy time de-registering their child from Special School. Because of this, and because every family has different needs, we always advise parents to have some support behind them when they decide to de-register a child from a Special School. In the first instance we recommend contacting Education Otherwise as there is probably a local contact, with knowledge of that particular LEA, ready to help out if needed.
This page was last updated March 2004. It is based on the legal situation in England relating to Home Educating children with SENs, and on the practical experience of many Home Educating families.
The case studies on this page are not about actual families, but neither are they fiction, please think of each one as being a collage of the experiences of a group of families.
Please keep in mind that the information on this web site, is the informal exchange of ideas, between ordinary people (ie: NOT professionals), and should be accepted as such by the reader.
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