Just to contrast between “over there” and “over here”… I
do not have an opinion on this particular private school or
there application of ABA.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2004/08/08/naut08.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/08/ixho
me.html
Put your autistic children into a primary school or we’ll
prosecute, families are told
By David Harrison
(Filed: 08/08/2004)
Parents who set up a special school for their autistic
children have been threatened with prosecution for failing
to send them to a mainstream primary school.
The Step by Step autistic school in East Sussex opened in
April this year because parents felt that local schools
could not cater for their children’s special needs.
The county’s education authority told the parents, however,
that they would be taken to court if their
children’s “unauthorised absences” from school continued.
Last night the parents condemned the threats. Samantha
Hilton, from Crowborough, whose son Max, six, goes to Step
by Step two days a week and to a state primary school for
three days, said: “They can prosecute me if they like but
I’ll go to jail rather than deprive my son of the chance of
having a more fulfilling life.
“It is completely ridiculous to threaten me with
prosecution because Max goes to an autistic school at our
own expense.”
Mrs Hilton, 34, whose five-year old son, Charlie, is also
autistic, said: “Max is not playing truant. We are not
failing to control him. We are trying to give him the best
education we can find. Step by Step is good for him, he has
made so much progress there, and he loves it.”’
Catherine James, whose son Joshua, six, attends Step by
Step three days a week and St Mary’s RC primary two days a
week, said that the council’s threats were outrageous. “We
started Step by Step because the provision for autistic
children was not good enough. Now they are pressuring me to
give up something that gives Josh the chance of a brighter
future.”
Mrs James, 41, a teacher at a private secondary school,
added: “The Government talks a lot about choice but what
choices are we given?”
The National Autistic Society described the threats
as “unnecessarily aggressive”. A spokesman said: “Local
authorities should work in partnership with parents to do
the best thing for the children. Children’s needs must be
paramount and parents usually know their children better
than local authorities.”
The parents opened the school four months ago at
Sharpthorne, 12 miles from Crowborough, after a tribunal
refused to overturn the education authority’s rulings that
a local primary school was adequate for Max, and that two
days at a primary school and three at a special needs
school was appropriate for Joshua.
Mrs James said: “The local authority lumps together
children with very different needs in the name
of ‘inclusion’, but that’s no good for Josh.”
The parents, supported by other families, spent two and a
half years planning the new school and raised £500,000 in
grants from the Government, educational trusts and local
fundraising schemes.
They decided to defy the ruling, open the school and send
their children there - at a cost of £12,000 a year for Max
and £18,000 for Joshua, who goes three days a week there.
From September Josh will go to Step by Step full-time,
increasing the fees to £30,000 a year.
The school, a registered charity, was approved by the
Department for Education and Skills and passed its
preliminary Ofsted inspection.
Step by Step has four autism therapists who use a teaching
method pioneered in America, called Applied Behavioural
Analysis. The one-on-one technique breaks down tasks and
speech into minute steps and aims to help children achieve
a degree of independence.
The parents said that the technique helped their children
to develop in a way that would not be possible at a state
school full-time. Mrs James said: “It can turn children’s
lives around.”
The school has four pupils, with two more expected to join
next month, and the capacity to take up to 12. The day
consists of intensive one-to-one work in the morning and
group sessions in the afternoon. Pupils are taught
everything from reading and communication skills to
dressing themselves, personal grooming and mixing with
other people.
Other parents of autistic children criticised the local
authority. Charlotte Moore, from Hastings in East Sussex,
who has two autistic children, said: “The council’s threats
are unbelievable. Autistic children, almost without
exception, should not be in mainstream schools. Step by
Step is the right way to approach autism. If the council
says that its own provision is adequate then it is almost
certainly wrong.”
Mrs Moore, whose children attend an autistic unit attached
to a special needs school and have Applied Behavioural
Analysis therapy for two hours a night five days a week at
home, said: “This could be about saving money on the part
of the local authority but although it may be cheaper in
the short term not to fund special schools it will be much
more expensive in the long term because the children will
be less independent as adults.”
Carol Povey, the National Autistic Society’s co-ordinator
for London and the South East, said: “Children with autism
are very individual. Autism is a spectrum disorder and
requires a wide range of provision. One solution does not
fit all.” Autism is a lifelong development disability that
impairs a person’s ability to communicate with others or
form social relationships and leads to the development of
strong obsessional interests.
More than 500,000 people in Britain, including more than
100,000 children, have autism, according to the National
Autistic Society. Boys are four times more likely to
develop the condition than girls and autistic children are
20 times more likely to be excluded from school than
others. Autism was first identified in 1943 but is still a
relatively unknown disability. The causes of autism are not
known but scientists agree that it is a mix of genetic and
environmental factors.
The Government has sought to encourage councils to educate
children with special needs, including autism and other
disabilities, in mainstream schools, claiming that this is
better for their education. It is also cheaper.
The Conservatives promised to reverse this policy last week
by giving parents of children with disabilities the right
to have their child educated at a special school.
David Cameron, the Conservative MP for Witney, Oxfordshire,
who has a severely disabled son, said yesterday that the
Government’s inclusion policy was being used to cut costs
and place children in the mainstream when they would be
better off in special schools. “It is crazy. We are talking
about some of the most vulnerable children in the country,
they have huge needs and really can not do anything for
themselves, and yet the blanket policy of inclusion is
being used to close special schools,” he said.
East Sussex county council insisted that the education
offered by the council’s schools was suitable for the
children. A spokesman said: “We expect all parents to make
sure their children attend school. In these cases the
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal has found
Step by Step School to be inappropriate. If a child remains
absent then the county council may ultimately have no
option but to prosecute.”