School discrimination
Not all children with special educational needs (SEN) are
classed as disabled.
Disability is a legal term which can be defined as "a physical
or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term adverse
affect on the person's ability to carry out day to day
activities"
Some children who have statements of
SEN will be classed as disabled, but there will also be some
children without statements who would also be classed as
disabled.
Schools and the law
It is against the law in some situations for a school to
treat a disabled child less favourably than a non-disabled child
without good reason.
Situations where a school must take care not to discriminate
unfairly include:
- admissions
- exclusions
- the provision of education and related
services.
A school must make reasonable adjustments to make
sure that it does not treat a disabled child less favourably.
However, schools are not obliged to make physical adaptations
to their buildings/classrooms or to buy
special equipment. If a school proved that they
would have to make unreasonable adjustments to accommodate
your child, this would be considered a good enough reason not to be
called discrimination.
What to do if you think a school has discriminated against your
disabled child
If you feel there has been unfair discrimination against
your child, you should always talk to the school about this
first.
If you still feel that the school are being unreasonable,
contact us for further advice. We will talk both to you
and to the school and try to resolve issues through conciliation
and/or mediation. You still have the right to further appeal, and
you would do this through the Special Educational Needs and
Disability Tribunal. We will give you basic information about how
to make your appeal, but you can get more detailed information from
the Tribunals
Service website.
Find out more about services for disabled
children in Kent