Mar 7, 2023, Oxford Mail: Wantage mother appeals over autistic son's education https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23368249.wantage-mother-appeals-autistic-sons-education/
S. England
A mother has appealed against a recommendation to send her five-year-old son with autism to a mainstream school.
Emma Adams, 32, is awaiting a date for a tribunal after Oxfordshire County Council said her son George should join Stockham Primary School in Wantage.
Mrs Adams refused as she believed George, who has autism spectrum disorder and a speech and language delay, would not be able to cope.
It means that George has been out of education for eight months and is instead cared for at home by his parents.
Emma Adams, 32, is awaiting a date for a tribunal after Oxfordshire County Council said her son George should join Stockham Primary School in Wantage.
Mrs Adams refused as she believed George, who has autism spectrum disorder and a speech and language delay, would not be able to cope.
It means that George has been out of education for eight months and is instead cared for at home by his parents….
George previously attended The Ark Preschool in Wantage. His mother said it took him “a good year” to settle in and she would often be called to collect him when he had a “meltdown.”
She applied to the council for an Education, Health, and Care plan in January 2021 to help George get into a special education school.
The plan is meant to take 20 weeks, but by the time term started in September, it had still not been completed….
Mrs Adams paid £900 [1,073] for an educational specialist to look at the plan, and decided to appeal in the hope that other parents aren’t put through the same situation.
She said: “I’m hoping that someone from OCC will realise what they’re putting families through.”
David Johnston, MP for Wantage and Didcot, said he was “sorry” to hear about the case and added he had received similar complaints from other parents and schools.
He said he intended to meet one-to-one with Minister for Children and Families Claire Coutinho to discuss the issue further.
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