Fifth of disabled children face informal school exclusion

A study of 400 families of children with disabilities, special educational needs (SEN) or additional needs also found that 15 per cent of children experience informal exclusion from activities at school every day, such as being banned from attending school outings.

The survey by the charity Contact a Family found 56 per cent of families had been told their child could not take part in a school trip or activity because it was unsuitable for them, and 53 per cent of families reported that teachers had asked them to collect their child during the school day because the school was short of staff.

One of the parents surveyed by Contact a Family told the organisation that her son, who has Asperger Syndrome, was “put into isolation during Ofsted visits”.

“It started with the school asking me to bring my son home at lunchtimes every day,” said London mother Claire Parkinson. “I was also asked to collect him 30 minutes before the end of the school day. He was never allowed on school trips.”

The Contact a Family research meanwhile found that 43 per cent of disabled children had felt depressed as a result of informal exclusions, and more than half were falling behind with schoolwork.

Srabani Sen, chief executive of Contact a Family, said illegal informal exclusions threatened to “undermine the government’s intentions set out in the Children and Families Bill of disabled children achieving their full potential”.

She warned that the issue could be more widespread than the study suggested, because many parents were unaware of the illegality of such exclusions.

“Our survey was carried out with parent carers who recognised that their child was being illegally excluded,” said Sen. “As a result, we fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg and many more children with a disability or additional needs are falling through the education net.”
 
“If non-disabled pupils were sent home because there were not enough school staff, there would be uproar.”

Jane McConnell, chief executive of the charity IPSEA, which offers advice to parents of children with SEN, said illegal exclusions often led to schools failing to review children’s needs. 
 
“The current SEN legal framework, if followed correctly, is an effective way to review what is in place and identify what needs to be in place,” said McConnell.
 
“Too often parents are persuaded that to pick their child up early or take their child out of school will mean that they will not have a ‘blot’ on their school record. But by doing this it means that no one within the school has to deal with the underlying issues as to why the child is not in school.
 
“Too often schools are not aware that it is the duty of a local authority to ensure a child’s needs are being met if the school is unable to do so out of their existing SEN budgets.”

Contact a Family has published recommendations for schools and Ofsted on the back of the research. These include asking teachers to work more closely with parents to agree a child’s support requirements, and for Ofsted to consider giving schools that illegally exclude children with SEN an inadequate rating.