16/10/2019
As the parent of a disabled child, I have had to fight for every level of support for my son - from diagnosis to appropriate education. At 15, that fight is unlikely to be anywhere near over as he enters adulthood. All of the early fighting was often done on a maximum of four hours sleep and through periods of panic, guilt, despair and even mourning. I have had to learn what his rights are, realising that those in positions of authority have not always been truthful. I’ve sat in courtrooms arguing his right to be appropriately educated. All of this, whilst educating myself to teach him skills that I had previously taken for granted, that many others acquire so easily. This continues despite his age and will continue for the rest of my life. I can’t write well enough to describe the level of ‘wrong’ that this kind of article is. But I will simply remind those that see our special needs children as something other than children, our special needs people as something less than people, you need to sit and question why this is. I imagine it is as a result of ignorance and is not meant to cause the harm that it results in. This life can be bloody hard, exhausting and lonely. So please do not, by your ignorance, add another layer of distress to us parents, families, caregivers, educators and communities trying to do the best for all of our children.
**Edited - if you would like to complain about this disgusting article you can on the link below
http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1820902-xHOMNaVSET
It’s hard to start a response to this article without telling The Times and The Sunday Times to go f**k themselves, so I won’t bother trying not to.
Are children with special needs not pupils too? Are my boys not worthy of an education just like any other child?
Isn’t the reality that this shambles of a government have consistently underfunded all schools, just like they have so many other services in this country?That the councils are wasting the money they do have and putting the blame elsewhere?
They are trying to deflect any of the blame from themselves to children just like mine. Making out we are a financial burden to the rest of the country.
It’s not as if they’re even providing the funding to meet the needs of special needs children anyway.
Last week at our parents meet up, the main topic of conversation was schooling. The fight that families have to go through to get an Educational Health Care Plan (clearly because they don’t want to spend the money) Then the fight once that EHCP is in place to actually get the schools to follow it.
If you want your child to attend a special needs school often there’s not enough places, especially if you’re trying to make the switch from mainstream to special needs.
Many families are being forced to take their children out of school and being left without a place, having to home school instead.
So the wait for diagnosis and EHCP’s is too long, there’s not enough schools, there’s not enough places in schools, and the solution is to place the blame at society’s door. Blame our children.
To try and turn the rest of the country against families like mine, just like they’ve done asylum seekers, and anyone on benefits.
Disgraceful
