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Can an academy refuse to refer a disabled child for 14–16 Youth College/AP because she cannot first attend the same school she is unable to access?
My 14-year-old daughter is on roll at an academy but has been unable to access school consistently since October 2025 due to SEND/dyspraxia, anxiety/sensory difficulties and recently diagnosed Overt Hashimoto’s/hypothyroidism.
The LA has agreed Section 19 medical tuition on Feb, but no provision has started yet. We still have no confirmed start date, hours, tutor/provider or venue.LA don't always respond to emails or answer all questions.
The academy Principal originally suggested South Tyneside Youth College / 14–16 college as a good fit. However, he is now refusing to progress the referral unless my daughter first reintegrates into the academy on a limited basis. The difficulty is that the academy is the setting she cannot currently access.
Youth College is school-led referral/SLA route where the child remains on the school roll, so parents cannot self-refer. The LA says Youth College questions are for the school because it is school-arranged AP. The school has also said further correspondence will not be acknowledged until my daughter attends school.I requested a sar after the pa told me she had ran my complaint letter through chat gpt and would not accept it as it was 100% ai generated. They refused the sar. I will raise an I C complaint
I have submitted a Stage 2 complaint about the head refusal but that process is too slow because the Youth College window is time-sensitive they have trials in June and it's 1st come 1 served.
I am not asking for a guaranteed Youth College place. I am asking whether she can lawfully be blocked from even being considered because she cannot first attend the setting she is currently unable to access.
My main questions are:
1. If the Youth College route is school-commissioned, does the LA still have to act under Section 19 if the school’s refusal leaves the child without suitable education?
2. Could this be an Equality Act reasonable adjustments/disability discrimination issue if the school is applying an attendance precondition my daughter cannot meet because of disability-related needs?
3. What is the quickest route to challenge this, given the LA says Section 19 is being arranged but the school controls the Youth College referral
4. Will she be classed as disabled due to long term condition Hashimotos and ongoing anxiety she is awaiting Cyps appointment.
ThanksLisa Purvis
10 May 2026
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Should I file for discrimination and victimisation? Given how the school is now trying to remove my child after i made a complaint.
School failed to follow complaint procedure and concluded my complaint without sending me an outcome letter. I have requested the complaint be reviewed at stage 2 which they are obstructing. I have sent the stage 2 escalation to the school admin team to foward to the Clerk to the governing body as the Clerk contact details are not publicly available, but the admin have refused to forward my stage 2 request. Should I escalate to DFE since the chair of governor has been inbolved and concluded my complaint without sending me an outcome of the investigation and denying me access to stage 2 process
Should i file for discrimination and victimisation?
Suddenly, they called an ehcp review last week and said they cant meet my childd needs on the basis pf limited progress and lack of engagement. They said my child requires a provision for children with severe learning needs. I disagreed because my daughter does not have severe learning needs. She has made some progress at her own pace. Limited progress is not a valid reason to say a school cannot meet needs. The techer said my daughter does not respond to her name. I disagreed because my daughter responds to her name all the time
The teacher then tried to argue that my daughter doesnt transfer her abilities/skill across a range of different setting even though she is able to perform the task. As an autistic child. I feel that she learns differently and as long as she is able to perform a specific task in one setting, that should count as an achievement . She needs to build confidence to be able to transfer that skill to another setting
During one meeting i had with the head teacher last year when i raised concerns a obout recurring injuries, she mentioned that staff find me difficult and they are worried that i might accuse them of harming my child despite i have never accussed anyone.
My concerns were regarding lack of supervision due to the frequency of injuries and school not being able to tell me how the child sustained the injuries.
During the same meeting with the head teacher last year, she suggested that i remove my child from the school i told her it was my childs first year in school and she should give her a chance and all i was asking was enhanced supervision.Zena Brown
02 May 2026
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Can university turn down appeal when they’ve failed to provide agreed exam adjustments
Daughter gets 25% extra time in her uni exams - she always uses this time. She sits exams in a room on her own as has severe anxiety. Recently sat an exam and we only realised a couple of days later when next exam was much longer that invigilator had not included her extra time in the finish time. Daughter had come out of the exam incredibly upset as for the first time had completely run out of time. Exam department admitted and apologised for the error, advised to put in for special consideration. This was turned down as the panel said exam result (74%) was similar to other results (79% and 93% in other modules) so extra time would have made no difference. The module that was affected previous exam and coursework in the high 90's.
On seeing her marked paper she lost 3/70 marks in the first 90 minutes, then when aware of only 30 minutes left (should have been 60) panicked and spiralled only got 7/30 marks left.
She has been told by Student Union only option is to appeal and if successful an uncapped resit. She has extreme exam anxiety and would have to give up weeks of holidays to study again. Seems incredibly unfair for unis error. Any advice would be appreciated please.Claire Mcdonald
24 Apr 2026
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Can the LA refuse to consult an Independent mainstream
My LA is refusing to consult a mainstream secondary independent unless I agree to pay the school fees, and they will pay any top up from the EHCP (very little support needed at the moment) my child is mainly SEMH does not want sen in a mainstream but wants to go to a small class size mainstream (independent) LA is refusing, I will appeal but is it lawful to refuse to consult the school? they seem to be using a loop hole by re stating they are not refusing to consult, they will consult if I agree to pay the fees is this lawful?
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Can my son take Functional Skills for Maths and English instead of GCSEs?
This is at a mainstream school with ARP (which covers Maths and English). He has an EHCP and school think he will struggle even with the Functional Skills, but they say as a mainstream school they cannot let him only do the FS, he has to do the GCSEs in both subjects as well.
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University admissions disability discrimination appeal for 17 year old F/T college student - is Legal Aid available?
My daughter has recently been rejected from a performing arts university after she applied to a degree course. She has diagnoses of Autism and Dyspraxia and an EHCP which I made the University aware of in various emails about her application over the last 12 months. Her disabilities are also recorded on her UCAS form.
The final stage of the admissions process was an in-person audition and interview which was a disaster as her anxiety levels were off the scale, she made mistakes (despite being a superb musician and singer), the questions asked were not Autism and Dyspraxia friendly (they asked abstract, open questions and she felt that they were trying to catch her out) and she left after having a meltdown. It’s a heart-breaking situation for her.
I believe that the University have broken the Equality Act (2010) by failing in their anticipatory duty to offer reasonable adjustments in the audition, as best practice for interviewing Autistic/Dyspraxic candidates has not been applied in any form to the audition.
I have years of experience fighting battles for diagnoses, EHCP, transport and many other barriers as you might imagine a SEND parent has. I am currently looking at appealing against the University decision and it occurred to me that there might be specialist solicitors out there that could help me.
Before I start this battle on my own, can anyone advise if this is the sort of situation that a specialist solicitor would take on and if so, is it possible to get legal aid, and if so would that be for help with dealing with the university appeals process or only if we were to proceed to County Court?
Thanks!
Jerry & Debs
11 Feb 2026
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How can I request a change to the type of assessment in a University admission audition as a reasonable adjustment due to disability? (Related to my previous question University admissions disability discrimination appeal)
After a rejection, where she was disadvantaged by a lack of adjustments in the audition (she has Autism and Dyspraxia diagnoses + an EHCP), despite copious evidence of the University being informed of her disabilities and vulnerability in writing.
I am looking at a possible outcome for my appeal (if it is allowed that is) and the University policy states if an appeal is upheld there will be one of 4 outcomes:
1.An apology
2.Another audition without prejudice
3.Conditional offer
4.Offer
The best I can hope for is another audition but I feel that this puts my daughter in the same situation, only this time around, with adjustments. It's highly likely that she will still have extreme anxiety and there's every chance she may fail again as a result of her disability.
Would I be able to request a different, less stressful way of them testing her competence as she's being denied her chance to prove herself through no fault of her own? It seems so unfair.
I also feel uncomfortable about another audition ‘without prejudice’ which appears to be totally reliant on them being fair. Surely this could just be a case of ‘paying lip service’ and only auditioning her again to get themselves out of the discrimination complaint and then still rejecting her as they don’t want her as her parents have complained, and we may be seen as ‘difficult’
There really isn’t anyone to police what they do and say behind closed doors with admissions problems as the OIA don’t cover that process.
Jerry & Debs
11 Feb 2026
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Suspensions
Son is 6 years old - suspected ADHA,PDA and Trauma related anxiety (owing to my incurable cancer diagnosis). He is in year 1 of a primary school who were very slow to acknowledge his SEN needs, despite paperwork backing this from age 3. He has a sen support plan in place, along with a positive behaviour plan - both heavily written by me as the SENCO is very inexperienced. He now has 1:1 at all times he is in school - with a note in the sen plans that he should be with a trusted adult at all times, because of a flight risk and risk to others. This year he has been suspended 3 times already with the last suspension being 2.5 days for spitting. The situation occurred because his trusted adult was not with him, no adult was. My question is - can the school really suspend him, when they are failing to stick to what's been agreed and counter to the plan, fail to identify new triggers and learn from experience. Many thanks legal brains for giving your time.
Michelle Bullen
21 Jan 2026
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Can I claim transport costs arisen while appealing changes to transport provided (appeal was successful)?
- Transport changed from solo taxi to shared taxi without new risk assessment being conducted
- initial appeal (end of august, just before school returned) submitted parent statement
- initial appeal failed, warned one attempt left. Gathered evidence from multiple professionals for stage two appeal and triggered pre-action protocol letter
- while appealing - self funded transport with the same company the LA had been using previously, receipts provided
- outcome - won appeal and LA concluded solo transport was required, however refusal to reimburse any costs as it was parental choice to send our son to school and we hadn't provided all the evidence (which we didn't have) at stage one
Context - our son is a school refuser (gaps in attendance can lead to increase in distress behaviours going in / increased refusal), his school is out of county and we were unable to drive him ourselves, all our leave was allocated to school holidays, our son has a congenital brain injury and cannot be left at home without supervision, our son has previously looked after child status (adopted) and significant trauma, the loss of regular driver triggers rejection and toxic shame responses (including self injurious behaviour).
Additional - initial appeal August 2024, pre action protocol issued October 2024 (and not accepted as stage two complaint hadn't gone through - we thought both ran together, additional costs associated with this), complaints re costs incurred outcome August 2025. (Process initially delayed by gathering evidence, and then by stress incurred / health issues)
Costs incurred - around £5,000, now in debt as a result as had been told if we won the appeal we would claim costs back (but county staff member - recording of this phone call is unavailable we have been told, as not all calls are recorded) -
Understanding change of placement in section I after permenant exclusion?
My son is in year 7, EHCP and been permanently excluded.
He was in mainstream and I was trying to get a change of placement but the LA had not put the paperwork through in time and told me to wait. In which time he was PEX. I'm not appealing the PEX as it's pretty pointless, he lasted 10 weeks in Mainstream school.
Now the PEX has prompted a change of placement under section I. I have named a specialist, the LA are consulting on Parental preference. But they feel his needs can still be met in Mainstream and consulting with them.
Due to the PEX he is now educated outside of school and the LA have set him work online with a tutor online. Which obviously does not meet provision F. I also work full time and after next week I have zero childcare. I have complained to the director of children and suprise, nobody cares.
I have two questions with anyone that has been through this:
1.When the LA name a school that is not parental preference I have the right to appeal under SEN tribunal, this is currently a 9-12 month wait, is this triaged as more urgent as he is not in school? Also will the 'tutoring' remain in place whilst I appeal?
2.I have contacted every solicitor I possibly can to proceed with judicial review, can anyone recommend anyone that could take legal aid and has availability?
I actually have no idea what to do and I don't actually no how I'm going to keep my job. Anyone that's been through this experience and could share would be much appreciated, I can't find this situation online anywhere.O