You put your child in, you put your child out...

Yup, all I can think of how we are expected to dance with our kids' futures, education and health.

It seems to be a total hokey tokey dance with the education system here in NZ.
Policy, disability rights, actual needs, schools, options within the system and internal procedure seems to entwine itself into a never ending and contradicting maze.

We 'fell into' homeschooling by necessity.

W's needs were such he was probably clinically depressed and certainly seriously contemplating suicide as an 8 year old because of the stresses and difficulties of coping in a mainstream school without supports - supports we had requested and the school had declined to supply - or even use supports we supplied ourselves.

Not prepared to be the mother of an 8 year old suicide victim, and having hit a brick wall with the school, I did the only option left to us and pulled him from school. Because he'd improved with a trial run at home the GP at the time didn't want to refer him to any mental health services - clearly the root cause was school and so it was an education issue.

The education system and the health system here are like cogs grinding in opposite directions even though children and their families need a clean and simple meshing for the best outcomes for the children.

I was aware at the time that pulling W from school and homeschooling him meant that he wasn't entitled to any supports from Special Education, therapies etc. At the time it was the least of our worries - and these had been denied by the school anyway so really seemed a moot point. This was his second school letting him down like this and as we had already discovered, if a school refuses to apply for funding there is nothing anyone can do about it - even for a kid with a diagnosed disability.

However - 5 1/2 years down the track we now discover that just because he hasn't improved as we had hoped, that testing points that his best educational setting is not compatible with a mainstream schooling setting, schools' autonomy continues to run rife and funding for children with mixed needs simply isn't sufficient W's options are surrounded with brick walls.

The policy - both that of Special Education and that of the National Disability Framework - states that people with disabilities should have equal rights to basics as compared to those without and this includes education. Special Education policy states that those needing special education supports have the right to the most appropriate educational setting for them to be successful.

And so, armed with the testing showing that mainstream school will not be the setting for W to be most successful we asked for an assessment for him to be enrolled into Correspondence for his secondary schooling. I can't teach him the range of subjects he needs at this level and he's entitled to an adequate education.

The first assessment was a total fiasco with relevant people not contacted, irrelevant people contacted, a report riddled with errors including a mis-representation of W's official diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. It resulted in a formal complaint from us which has not been upheld - despite their decision letter not addressing 3/4 of our concerns and the section regarding the mis-quote doesn't even make sense!
However they did concede to giving W a fresh assessment.

This assessment was yesterday - and very thorough - even including meeting with and assessing W which never happened before!
However we don't expect to get the approvals he needs as apparently, once you opt out of the system you stay out. It is apparently against policy to go to Correspondence from homeschooling. You can only go to it from school and on a school's recommendation.

W would not attract any funding help other than what a school decides to give from their discretionary funds and as already experienced there are many other demands on that money and a child who does not create difficulties in class is unlikely to get it and when a school decides not to help then no one can make them.

So we have no good choices here - we either make up his secondary schooling as we go along, pay for a curriculum which won't lead to a national qualification (although apparently NZ Universities do recognise it currently) or throw him back into school. As the first assessment also included significant time delays he would not be able to go to the most appropriate school for him as we live out of zone next year anyway.
Even if we could get him into the most appropriate school supports are dependent on the school's willingness to supply them and even then testing says this won't be the way for W to actually achieve to his potential. He will be spending all his energies coping rather than learning.

Once he is exhausted by coping he will deteriorate. W, being the kind of kid he is, will turn that in on himself rather becoming a problem for the school.
He already has a tendency to saying he is useless and worthless, he previously engaged in mild self-harming behaviour and is at risk for depression anyway. But none of that will be enough for a school to say they aren't managing him and that he needs to go to Correspondence. That will take some major problem.

The system is saying we actually have to leave him to sustain significant damage to his mental health, self-esteem and educational progress before they will help him - great point to be able to say 'told you so'!

Quite apart from the impossible situation this leaves W in it leaves me wondering - everyone says we have a world class education system here - really??
No wonder that we have around 20% of people leaving school with no qualifications, have such a high dis-engagement with education rate or why home-schooling is increasing these days. The rise is mostly made up of those with kids with mild or mixed special needs.
The problem is, while the issue is 'fixed' from the education system's view-point when these kids leave, our situation is going to become a persistent one as these children reach secondary and parents want the best for their children.

There is also no wonder that the employment rate for those with diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome apparently sits around 8 - 12% - and we're talking part time not full time employment!

Considering we have our 20% non-achieving tail, the rate of those diagnosed with ASD is increasing, as people saw from my post on World Prematurity Day the numbers of prem children with moderate learning differences is rising - what are the actual numbers of children not being well served by our 'world class' system?

The latest Government document on Special Education was entitled "Success for every Child"
                                         - it'd be nice wouldn't it?