How To Apply For A Place At A Special School For Your Child With Special Educational Needs (SEN)
How do I apply for a place at a special school?
Normally, it varies school on school but a typical thing to do is first of all, to obviously find out about the schools, use sites such as the Good Schools Guide, and the authority websites to actually get the basic information and maybe send for a perspective. Not all special schools send perspectives out. They often want to chat with you and find out a little bit more about your child first. So that could be the very first part of call. And that may be quite useful for you because what you may find is that while that school may not be the right one, they can actually sign post you to other schools that will be right for that child. Generally, they'll invite you for a visit and that will be without the child. You'll take a look at the school and it's back to looking at children in classroom, the end result and thinking, 'Is this a fit for my child?' If you still think it's a fit, they will ordinarily invite the child in. Depending on the nature of the special need, they may do a very detailed assessment which can take anywhere from half a day to half a term. So be prepared for that. And again, it depends on the severity of the special needs and the type of placement. Once the school agrees to take the child, then you must get that school named on your statement and the authority must agree to placing there so even if the school says "yes, he can have a place", there's no guarantee that the funding will follow.
