Aspies For Freedom

A father who has spent two years fighting for his autistic son's right to a suitable education said he hoped the fight was near an end yesterday.

Next week, former milkman Danny Diamond takes on the Lord Chancellor at the High Court in Belfast in a bid to get the current rules on legal aid overturned in relation to education tribunals.

If successful, the move could have huge implications for the parents of children with autism and other special educational needs challenging a decision from the education boards.

The case springs from 14-year-old Eoin's exclusion from the special school he attended in Belfast. Since then, Mr Diamond, who gave up work to care for his son, has been trying to get a new statement for Eoin supporting Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
The technique is not formally accepted or funded in the Province and is currently the subject of several legal challenges from families trying to get board funding for ABA.

Mr Diamond's legal fight began when he was refused legal aid for representation for Eoin at the tribunal involving the Belfast Education and Library Board.

"It turned out there was no funding put in place for that," he said.

"Since then, they introduced criteria under which you can get limited funding. We put in for that and they turned us down again, so we went ahead and brought the case against the Lord Chancellor in a bid to get the decision reversed."

A victory will leave the way clear for other families in a similar position to make their own challenge.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/18673/

I think that people should be able to get legal aid to challenge education authorities after their child has been excluded like that.

It is totally wrong that kids with autism are excluded from schools because the school can't cope, not because the child has actually done something wrong.
After exclusion children have to stay at home until another placement is found, which can take months.
Instead of education authorities giving better funding or training to special schools or units, they allow them to exclude autistic children, and these issues are swept under the carpet.

My son has been excluded from two schools becuase they could not cope, the education authority finally agreed to give him a one-to-one helper in the classroom which he had needed all along.
We had to go through the stress and trauma of exclusions, school changes, and the stigma of having that on school records.

I do not agree with this case concerning the ABA funding. That would have wider implications for all children on the spectrum.

Maybe home schooling is best. I would have been thrilled if I didn't have to put up with the absolute madness of school. I scored second highest in the state a year early on a regence algebra final and because I sucked at gym and wore my winter coat all the time I was still stupid. If they'd have asked why I wore the coat, I'm sure they would have been surprized. It was because I saw everything like it really was. I couldn't understand why everyone was so happy about being thrown in these creatures and running around on this crazy planet and acting like everything is just fine and dandy. I barely remember, but my parents hands used to scare the crap out of me. They we huge and creepy. Sometimes I think that if you're born Autistic it can easily get damaged and your intincts don't work so well in the first place. Maybe from foods or chemicals or something. Not that Autism itself is a problem. Mine is faily intact and I am pretty functional. My instincts are fairly useles. Emotions are short and cut off abruptly. I am not easily drawn by sounds, smells, shinny things, beauty and all that crap. I mostly look for purpose and function.