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Liberal Democrats on Kent County CouncilThe Official Opposition on Kent County Council |
Why Can't I go to School?
July 16, 2004 9:03 AM
Cllr Geoff Rowe is concerned about school exclusions
At yesterday's County Council Meeting, Geoff Rowe, Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Malling Rural North East, stated that he was concerned about the County's Behaviour Support Plan.
Geoff reported that both schools and parents had advised him that trying to get children statemented in Kent 's educational system was practically impossible.
Parents told Geoff that they were being advised not to bother applying for a statement of special needs because no help would be forthcoming. Lack of resources, and trained qualified staff appeared to be the reasons for this.
Even when parents had managed to obtain statements, prior to their children accessing mainstream schooling, usually processed via the NHS, the statements, often, were not being supported in the schools. In some cases, this led to children being out of school for long periods of time."
Geoff quoted a case of his recently of a year 4 pupil at one of his local schools who had been out of school since January 21. The pupil was not offered any home support tuition until about a month ago and then only after Geoff himself had intervened. He was given 3 hours per week (20 hours should be minimum). He has now been offered a new school starting in the autumn, 8 months later.
The County Councillor with responsibility for Educational Standards could only reply, "I don't think Mr Rowe that you understand where we are coming from". He accepted that problems existed but indicated that strategies were in place to improve performance.
In response, Geoff said, "My postbag says otherwise! Kent's Liberal Democrat County Councillors are in the process of setting up a working group to identify problems around school exclusions and I would be interested to hear from other residents about their experiences."