Legal Update: In a Nutshell - Admission appeals based on infant class size
Coram Children's Legal Centre
Monday, April 27, 2015
In some areas, one-in-six children miss out on their first choice of school. Parents have the right to appeal these admission decisions.
This month, more than half a million families in England discovered which primary schools their children will attend. Rates of entry into first choice schools varied widely across the country, and up to one-in-six children missed out on their first choice of school in some areas. If unhappy with a school admission decision, parents have the right to make an appeal to an appeal panel and state why their child should attend their chosen school, even if it is at capacity. For community schools, the admission authority is the local authority. For most other schools (e.g. foundation and voluntarily aided schools), the governing body is the admission authority.
What is an infant class size appeal?
There is a legal limit for class sizes in reception and years one and two of 30 children per teacher. When children are refused a place in these year groups on the basis that admitting them would breach the legal limit of 30, parents can make an infant class size appeal. Not all applications for infant class places will be refused on infant class size grounds. Infant class size appeals are only used when the reason for the application being refused is due to a breach of the class size rule.
On what grounds can an infant class size appeal be made?
An appeal panel for an infant class size appeal can only look at:
- The lawfulness of the admissions arrangements, and whether they comply with the requirements of the School Admissions Code 2014 and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;
- Whether a mistake was made in not offering a child a place;
- Whether the admission of an additional child or children would breach the infant class size limit; and
- If it was unreasonable to refuse an application. Legally, "unreasonable" has a narrow meaning: an admission authority would have to be shown to have made a decision which is not rational in light of its legal responsibilities and that the decision is one that no other reasonable admissions authority would have taken. It is extremely difficult to win an infant class size appeal on this ground.
The panel can only consider information that the admission authority had available when they made their original decision, unless parents can submit new information to the panel showing that the admission authority acted unreasonably or did not correctly apply the admission criteria.
If an infant class size appeal is successful and the class will have 31 pupils in it the admission authorities have to take measures for the following year to ensure that the class falls within the infant class size limit (e.g. employing another teacher and creating a new class).
How can an appeal be lodged?
Parents will receive a letter stating that their child has been turned down for a school place. This letter must tell them of their right of appeal. Parents have to contact the admissions authority, in writing, stating they wish to appeal. This will begin the appeal process. Parents must be given at least 20 school days to send in written appeals.
Legal Update is produced in association with experts at Coram Children’s Legal Centre ?www.childrenslegalcentre.com
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