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Parents experience... |
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School transport obstacle course Before my eldest daughter Elizabeth started primary school, I had to deal with the biggest challenge – obtaining transport for her. I had to campaign for months with the local authority to arrange for a taxi to take her to and from school. I talked to various people in different departments. I was told that a taxi could be provided for my child only if she was attending the school for the local catchment area and had special needs, or if we lived more than three miles from the school. I explained that she was four years old and could not go to school on her own, and that I could not take her. The local authority in Rochford, Essex, asked why and I explained that I am registered Deaf-blind. I was told to ask my family for help and had to explain that they lived in Manchester and that my husband’s family lived in Luton. I asked if the authority would pay for my family to come to Rayleigh and, if not, how I could get Elizabeth to school. I said “You can’t take me to court for failing to take her to school – you are failing, not me!” I was told to ask the neighbours for help but they are elderly and/or unwell. I was asked about my husband. I explained that he left for work at 6.30am and arrived home at 7pm. The school opened at 9am and Elizabeth could not stay there in the evening. I was really challenging the local authority! They said they had no proof that I was actually Deaf-blind. It seemed that they were inventing obstacles. I replied that I could ask Moorfields Eye Hospital to send evidence of my visual impairment and could send them an audiogram as evidence of my deafness. They wanted evidence from a single organisation, so I contacted Sense (details opposite) who were shocked to hear about my situation and sent a letter to back me up. By this time, I was dealing with the head of transport – my case had been passed from pillar to post by other staff. I was becoming increasingly worried, as it was getting near to the end of the school year and the transport problem was still not resolved. It was exasperating. I asked Sense to help me again, as I needed an answer by the end of term, and there was only one week left until the summer holidays. Eventually, the head of transport wrote to me. The text of the letter was in large print, but despite my specific request, was on coloured paper and in a font that was unsuitable for my needs. It stated that a taxi could be arranged, but only if Elizabeth went to Edward Francis School (which was my second option, but not the school I had finally chosen). I wrote back and said “NO, she is going to Grove Infants School. The decision has been made”. DiscriminationAt this point, I had to ask my brother, who happens to be a solicitor, for help. I showed him the letter and he phoned the local authority. He told them it had to be Grove School and that it appeared that discrimination was taking place. When they discovered he was a solicitor, they backed down! At last, it was agreed that a taxi would be provided to take Elizabeth to school. Starting schoolElizabeth was very excited about starting school. Unfortunately, I was unable to go with her for her first day at school because I had no communicator-guide and the taxi driver refused to allow me to travel in the taxi without one. He was unwilling to be responsible for guiding me into and out of the taxi. So Elizabeth, who was four years and two weeks old, went off to school on her first day in a taxi with the driver – a stranger – on her own. I had asked the transport department to provide an escort for her, which was refused on the grounds that she had no special needs. I was very worried and stressed. I remember crying about it while holding my baby, Jennifer. I rang the school to check that Elizabeth had arrived OK and was told that she was fine. Apparently, when she arrived, her new reception teacher, who was a British Sign Language user, signed to Elizabeth. This helped her to settle into school. After Christmas 2003, I did have a communicator-guide, so was able to go to school with Elizabeth, but by then she had already been at school for three months. In April 2006, Elizabeth was offered a place at Grove Junior School and I had to reapply for her taxi. This time, I went straight to the head of transport – luckily, I remembered his name! We had a 45-minute discussion, in which I explained that I had another daughter who would, hopefully, be starting at the same school in September 2007, and requesting that they use the same taxi. He wrote, agreeing to continue to provide a taxi for Elizabeth, but I am still waiting to hear about transport for Jennifer. It has all been a lot of hard work. Getting support for school transportIn the UK it is still unclear whose responsibility it is to support disabled parents to transport their children to and from school. Different approaches have worked for disabled parents living in different places. The education department of the local authority will have a transport office and a policy stating which children it will help transport to school. If turned down, parents can apply to the exceptional circumstances fund. Some parents have received support from the school’s education welfare service. Another approach is to ask for a needs assessment from the social services adult disability team. This assessment should consider ‘family and social roles’. If help is needed in getting a child to and from school because of parental disability, this need should be assessed and addressed in the parent’s care plan. Some disabled parents receive direct payments and use these to employ personal assistants to take their children to school. Alternatively, arrangements for getting children to and from school may be made via local parents’ groups or voluntary organisations. Further information is available from the DPPI information service. Please see the back cover of this journal for contact details. SenseSense is the UK charity for deaf-blind people. It offers services including communicator-guides, advocacy and an enquiry service. There are also local support groups and the Sense Family Network, which allows families affected by deaf-blindness to meet and stay in touch. If you are seeking support, please contact the organisation and you will be put in touch with a regional office. Contact details: |
In the second of two articles on school issues, Catherine Field, a Deaf-blind mother with Usher’s Syndrome from Essex, UK, talks to Gill Lea-Wilson, Information Officer at DPPI, about the challenges she encountered in arranging school transport for her two hearing daughters and her campaign to beat the obstacle course.