July 14, 2023, Sky News: Video: Missing Pupils: Why are so many children with special education needs absent from school? https://www.livetube.tv/news/video-missing-pupils-why-are-so-many-children-with-special-education-needs-absent-from-school
VIDEO: George hasn’t been to school for the past six months. He has a complex learning disorder, and he’s been waiting years to see a specialist to find out if he has autism or not. He’s ten, but he can’t read or write.
The living room at home is a makeshift classroom, and George’s mum, Rachael, who has no teacher training whatsoever has had to quit her job to teach her son.
Mainstream school simply hasn’t worked for George.
His behavior often led to periods of exclusion as teachers struggled to handle him. So Rachael, reluctantly, stopped taking George to school, instead paying for online lessons until he get the proper education he’s entitled to. …
It shouldn’t be this way. By law, councils must provide support for children with special educational needs, or SEN.
In some cases specific details about what that education looks like can be set out in a legal document which can then unlock extra money for their education. This is called an Education Health and Care Plan, or EHCP for short.
Over the last five years, the number of EHCPs has gone up dramatically, from just over 350,000 in 2019, to more than half a million this year. That’s a 46 percent increase.
And the law’s clear: These plans must issued within 20 weeks, but that crucial deadline is missed in half of all cases. Meaning thousands of children are forced to wait.
George waited a year for his Education Health and Care Plan, but it’s made no difference whatsoever. …
George’s school told us they worked with the local council and had “successfully obtained” George’s EHCP. They said, “Education is available, both in school and remotely,” though he’s not currently attending.
They added, “At the time of writing, no additional SEND funding has been received.
We asked Essex County Council why they haven’t found George any alternative education provision yet. They said, “It would be inappropriate to comment on individual cases,” adding, “Any concerns raised by parents are dealt with according to our established processes, and we are in touch with the family directly.
“Essex County Council is committed to ensuring that every child has the support they need to meet their educational potential.”
Councils say they’re under pressure, underfunded. At the annual gathering of council leaders in Bournemouth last week, education took center stage.
We know that the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, is due to give a speech here today. We expect her to talk about absences in schools, so it will be interesting to see what she has to tell the conference.
GILLIAN KEEGAN: “Sadly, tragically, too many children are not attending school regularly, are persistently absent or are missing education all together.”
400,000 children with special educational needs or disabilities are missing huge sections of their education.
The government has issued a special educational needs improvement plan spending, they say, 2.6B [$3.4B], but it is unlikely to help children like George.
The reporter went on to ask Keegan why this hadn’t been done earlier.
Meanwhile George’s mother continues to apply to special schools and continues to be rejected.
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