SEN Students Affected By Illegal Exclusions and Cyber-Bullying

SEN Students Affected By Illegal Exclusions and Cyber-Bullying: According to a report released by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), the organisation receives more complaints about education and child services than any other area within its remit – almost a fifth (17%) of the 20,186 complaints submitted in 2012/13 were related to the topic. From among these, almost one in ten (8.6%) were related to support for SEN pupils.

Some of the key issues around SEN provision highlighted in the report include delays in local authority processes leading to a loss of education, poor assessment and reviews of SEN statements, failure to ensure suitable SEN provision within a local authority and unlawful exclusions because of a child’s special educational needs. In particular, the report criticises schools’ tendency to send pupils home to ‘cool off’ – a form of unofficial exclusion which it is argued will impact educational development.

SEN Students Affected By Illegal Exclusions and Cyber-Bullying

SEN Students Affected By Illegal Exclusions and Cyber-Bullying

Both schools and councils have a responsibility to care for children with SEN, although the LGO does not currently have powers to directly intervene with schools – although fines have been imposed on councils for failing to do so in the past. It should be noted that councils are not obliged to provide the exact support that a parent may request for their child, however, they should be able to clearly outline why they feel the suggested support is fitting for the individual in question.

SEN Pupils Experience Cyber-Bullying

In a separate report, published by the Anti-Bullying Alliance, it was also demonstrated that many pupils with SEN or with a disability have not been taught how to stay safe online – they have experienced cyber-bullying as a result.

The research, which was carried out via the medium of focus groups and included students with disabilities, learning difficulties, mental health issues and emotional or behavioural difficulties, also suggested that some respondents were creating an alternate persona online to mask their individual issues, or that they were actively avoiding going online.

Many of the respondents also mentioned that they felt adults, particularly teachers, did not know how to deal with the issues – including a feeling that they ‘don’t know what to say or how to deal with the situation.’

In 2013, almost one in five pupils in English schools had some form of SEN. Of those, 2.8% had needs which had been assessed within a SEN statement. The proportion of pupils with SEN as part of the overall school population has remained at 2.8% for the previous five years.

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