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Special education needs: mainstream education, home schooling, or obtaining the right setting and provisions for your child?

The Guardian reported last week that 'DIY schooling' is increasing as more parents home educate their children. The article looks at a particular family who took their children's education into their own hands when their son started to hate learning. The article quotes Eleanor Reardon, who set up a legal advocacy service for home educators, stating that home schooling is increasing for many reasons; including the "huge rise in special educational needs cases which are not being catered for" A quote taken from http://www.he-special.org.uk, a website of the HE-Special-UK mailing list for families who home educate children with special needs or disabilities states that: “So much of the failure in school comes directly out of boredom, which comes directly out of the larger failure to stimulate all those areas in the child's brain which could give him so many more ways of responding to his world." Although parents have a right to educate their children at home, the overall legal responsibility for identifying, assessing and meeting a pupil's special educational needs falls on local authorities. It is clear with the rise in home schooling that parents are becoming disillusioned by the current education system available and its ability to meet their children's needs. If you have experienced a similar problem where your child has special education needs that are not being catered for by their school or local authority, but home education is not an option for you, contact the education team here at Sinclairslaw on (020) 8891 4488. Sinclairslaw may be able to help secure the right resources for your child's education to flourish.