Can I educate my SEND child at home?

 

If your child is registered at a special school, then you MUST apply for permission to deregister to home educate. The local authority must not unreasonably withhold consent. They may seek to understand how your provision will meet their SEN. You may be asked to provide a detailed description of what you will seek to achieve and how you will provide it.

 

If you home educate a SEND child with an EHCP you are entitled to have the education provision stated as Home Education. However, you may not be able to maintain any or all of other provisions such as personal budgets,  OT or SaLT inputs. This is  dealt with as such on a case by case basis. You may often have to go it alone but it is worth fighting for if there is significant input. Organisations such as SENDIASS, SOSSEN, Ipsea and specialist support groups can help with the more legal technical aspects. 

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Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Access Arrangements

What if my child needs extra time, a scribe or a computer - can this be done?

Yes, home-ed students can still have access arrangements if they have special educational needs, but it can be very difficult to arrange as it involves extra work for the exam centre. External candidates simply do not have a right to extra time, it is based on normal way of working and on various other factors and potential specific assessments or diagnostics. See the page on Access Arrangements for further information. 

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This can be very expensive and very difficult. It's not fair. It is one reason why families of children with SEN may find it easier to arrange a part-time college course for them to take exams; in this situation, the college should deal with all arrangements and costs.

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This is also a good reason for considering very carefully whether removing children with SENDs from school just prior to exams where Access Arrangements are already in place is the best decision.

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Schools do not have to take external candidates in any situation and the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 do not compel them to offer access arrangements to external candidates, so our approach to exam centres has to be one of asking for a favour, rather than demanding a right.

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JCQ - Access Arrangements

JCQ are responsible for supplying the Access Arrangements Online portal (AAO) by which the Exams Officer apples for your child's exam concessions. They need to input approximately 20 pages of information which is why some centres are reluctant to take on private candidates who require AAs. Sometimes the on line system will give a rejection for the request. This is not automatically a refusal but a statement that the decision whether or not to award concessions automatically and that the decision has to be fed to a real person to assess the information, possibly request further details and make a manual decision. A copy of the latest rule book can be found at the JCQ button. This document is updated every year and sometimes in between. Changes from the previous year are highlighted in yellow.

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If your child has a disability such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLDs) such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia or Dyscalculia, they may be entitled to what is known as Access Arrangements( AAs) during the exams*.The Equality Act 2010 requires exam boards have to make reasonable adjustments where a candidate, who is disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010, and would be at a substantial disadvantage in comparison to someone who is not disabled.The idea is to give every one the same the child with the disability.

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The Process

To start the process for access arrangement applications; an initial meeting to discuss your needs should be arranged. The SEN Specialist will discuss with you what is required to apply and to complete any necessary paperwork. There is a charge for the access arrangements process of usually and should include the meeting and compiling the evidence and paperwork including the application. Additional fees may be applied if further evidence is needed.

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Evidence & Regulations

The regulations for access arrangements require the exam centre to have evidence that the candidate would be at a disadvantage without assistance. Learners will firstly need a selection of proof. There is a list of board accepted evidence below. Learners do not need to supply everything on the list, just the items you already have. All documents supplied must be original.

• Previous Form 8 from school or college which includes assessment scores from a specialist assessor.

• Any reports from school, college or private tutors that contains reference to the need of support within learning or tests.

• Samples of writing such as old essays or school work. This may need to be completed within the centre so the work can be timed and/or dictated to show the need for extra time, reader or scribe, this may be at an additional charge.

• Mock exam papers. Mock papers may need to be completed within the centre under exam conditions.

• An IEP or equivalent stating the need and use of support during learning.

• An Educational Health and Care Plan relating to a learning disability or issue.

• A letter from a professional showing evidence of a disability or other issues that would affect the candidate during an examination. Professional letters that are accepted as evidence are ones from consultants, SENCos, educational psychologists, CAMHs, LA, occupational health and specialised therapist. A letter from a GP is not acceptable.

 

Learners that are unable to supply the centre with a selection of evidence, or if the evidence they have is not sufficient, it should be discussed and possible alternatives that can be facilitated. These include centre delegated access arrangements such as laptop, supervised rest breaks and prompts, specialist assessments and mock exams. Evidence of “normal way of working” will still be required. There may be an additional charges.

 

Learners under the age of an equivalent Year 9 school child, there may be a possibility that Access Arrangements will not be granted. This is dependent on the Exam Board decision and specific conditions relating to your child. Obtaining reports and testing does NOT guarantee Access Arrangements will be granted. Applications, evidence and documentation are provided to the Exam Boards and the final decision is theirs.

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Upon completion of the evidence gathering, the SEN Specialist will apply to the awarding body for the access arrangements required. The outcome of the application should be communicated to the learners as soon as it is completed.

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Deadline Dates for applying for AAs

Please be aware that there are deadlines for applying for Access Arrangements. Generally speaking they are at or around these times of year. Your exam centre will advise of the actual dates on application.

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23rd January for Summer Exams (CIE)

14th February for all other Summer Exams

23rd June for November Exams (CIE)

23rd November for January Exams (Edexcel)

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What can parents do to make things easier for themselves?

1. You must make plans well in advance. A year before the expected exam sitting date is not too early. Contact the exam centre and ask if they would be able to accommodate a candidate with the specific need and AA you want and think your child is entitled to. If a year in advance is not possible then as soon as you can.

2. If your child has a medical report and diagnosis, or has already had an assessment with a Specialist Assessor, this will be helpful, so inform the centre of that. Ask if those reports will be accepted by the centre.

3. If they don’t have an assessment, ask the centre if they have the name of a Specialist Assessor with whom they already work.

4. Ask how you can fulfil the centre’s requirement to provide a ‘history of need’.

5. Be prepared to do whatever you are asked to do to provide that.

6. Be prompt in replying to emails, sending in evidence etc.

7. Always be polite to the person from the centre you are dealing with. Remember that they are essentially doing you a favour and are under no obligation to provide such a service.

8. Finally - Don’t leave the exam entry to the last minute. PLAN AHEAD!

NB, Cambridge Examinations International (CIE) board is not governed by the JCQ, although all other exam boards are. They have equally strict procedures for AAs, but are different in key areas.

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Alternative Options to Home Education

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14 -16 College Places

Colleges in England sometimes admit children aged 14 or 15 who are being electively home educated, to take courses on an infill basis by arrangement with the local authority or with the parents/carers. Not all colleges offer this, it is at the discretion of the college whether to accept pre-16s. The 4 to 16 centres’ will offer a combination of vocational and academic subjects. They aim to attract students of all abilities who want early access to more practical forms of learning and/or wish to train for a technical profession or trade and who wish to study in a college environment. 

The courses that EHE students can do, are not limited to the 14-16 provision from the college, but can include any course at any level (though some may have prerequisites) as long as they are on a Part Time basis. Where the courses are Full Time, the student is no longer considered EHE.

Parents should take note, that the child has to be age 14 on 31 August in the year in which they enrol at a participating college – unfortunately, a child who turns 14 in September, can only attend college the following year.

Funding Information for Colleges

Further education colleges and sixth-form colleges (colleges) are able to enrol and receive funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for students aged 14- to 16-years-old. ESFA will only fund 14 to 16 students enrolled and recorded on the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R04 return submitted by the college in December. Where these courses are at level 3, they are funded by entering the student on the ILR and the student then counts for lagged funding in just the same way as if they were 16- to 18-year-olds.

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Prior to September 2013, students on courses below level 3 were funded either directly by the local authority, or sometimes by the parents/carers, paying a fee to the college. These arrangements changed with effect from September 2013. Colleges now enter these students on the ILR and they count towards the college’s student numbers for lagged funding in the following year. Local authorities and parent/carers should no longer be expected to pay fees for this provision.

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These students can only be enrolled and funded for part time courses – if an institution recruits them for full time courses, then they are no longer home educated and the institution will need to meet the criteria for direct recruitment.

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* There may be other conditions which enable access arrangements or centre delegated permissions made available. This must be discussed with your exam centre and follow due process as detailed withing the JCQ manual of AAs which is updated for every September. They highlight each years changes in yellow.

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