Exclusion

If your child has been sent home from school and you have been told that you cannot send them back, then this must be recorded formally in writing as an exclusion. If the school does not wish to formally exclude, then your child is still legally allowed to attend. 

If your child is sent home for lunch, even with your agreement, then this still needs to be recorded as a half day exclusion. 

Exclusions can provide evidence that your child's needs are not being met in their current placement and that there could be some underlying SEND. This is why it is important that they are formally recorded.

A suspension is also known as a fixed period exclusion. It means your child is not allowed to attend their school for a set number of days. 

A pupil may be excluded up to a maximum of 45 days within a school year. After that, they may be permanently excluded. 

During the first five days of exclusion, your child should not be seen in a public place during school hours. It is your responsibility to arrange childcare or supervision. 

If the exclusion is for more than five days, then the governing body is responsible for providing some alternative education until your child is allowed to return to school. 

If your child has an EHCP, the governing body must speak to you about any proposed new placement. It might be that the EHCP will need to be reviewed 

At the end of the exclusion a re-integration meeting may be offered to discuss how to avoid exclusion happening again. Your child can then return to school. 

Your child is not allowed to return to their school or setting. 

It should only be used as a last resort when there has been either: 

• a serious incident
• repeated breaches of the schools behaviour policy
• a risk to the education or welfare of other pupils

During the first five days of exclusion, your child should not be seen in a public place during school hours. It is your responsibility to arrange childcare or supervision. 

If they are of compulsory school age, the local authority has a duty to find them alternative education from the sixth day of the exclusion. 

If your child has an EHCP, the local authority must speak to you about the new proposed placement. 

If you disagree with either a fixed period or a permanent exclusion, you can 'make representations', which means attending a meeting to give your views about it to the governing body of the school or setting. 

Exclusions must be upheld by the governing body of the excluding school or setting. This means that they will review information about what has led to the decision to exclude and then choose to agree with it (uphold) or disagree with it (over-turn). 

If they disagree with the decision, then your child can return to their school and the exclusion will be removed from their record.

If they uphold the decision then the exclusion will take place. You could then ask for the decision to be reviewed by an Independent Review Panel (IRP). 

The IRP do not have the power to overturn an exclusion. They can help by instructing the governing body to review their decision.

Parents are allowed to request the presence of a SEND expert (such as an educational psychologist or specialist) at an IRP to provide support and advice. Your child does not need to be on the school SEND register or have an EHCP. They will not diagnose your child, but may be able to provide advice about how their SEND may be affecting their behaviour in school.

If the governing body do not over-turn a permanent exclusion after reviewing it again, they will be asked to pay an additional £4,000 above the cost of permanently excluding a pupil to the local authority. 

If you feel that the exclusion could be related to disability discrimination under the Equality act 2010, then you could instead make a claim to the first tier tribunal, who do have the power to overturn the exclusion and re-instate a pupil. Get help dealing with disability discrimination. 

You could ask for a meeting with the school to discuss your concerns. We can help you to prepare for a school meeting. 

If you feel that your child's SEND maybe contributing to any behaviour that they are being excluded for, then you could consider whether an EHC needs assessment would be helpful. 

If your child already has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), it may need to be reviewed. For example, it may be that your child has developed new social, emotional or mental health needs that are not covered by the existing plan. We can help you to prepare for a review.

Where a looked-after child is at risk of either fixed term or permanent exclusion, the designated teacher should contact the relevant authority’s Virtual School Head (VSH) as soon as possible so they can help the school decide how to support the child to improve their behaviour and avoid exclusion becoming necessary. 

The designated teacher, working with the VSH and the child’s carers, should consider what additional assessment and support (such as additional help for the classroom teacher or one-to-one therapeutic work) needs to be put in place to address the causes of the child’s behaviour and prevent the need for exclusion. 

The following DfE documents may helpful:

• Promoting the education of looked after children.
• Designated teacher for looked after children.

Pupils with SEND are more likely to display challenging and/ or disruptive behaviours as a result of their indivdual needs, conditions and diagnoses. You can read more about this, including what schools are legally allowed to put in place on our behaviour advice page.