25% Of Children Ideintified With Special Education Needs Do Not Belong (US)

September 14, 2010

Failure in quality teaching and support has led to many children wrongly identified as having special educational needs, according to a report published by Ofsted today.

Ofsted examined special education provision to the age of 19 years across 22 local authorities and concluded that good quality education and effective identification of children with special needs is "not common".  Almost half of the pupils who have been identified for School Action, the lowest SEN category, have been wrongly identified when quality teaching and support would have sufficed, the report said.

Almost 25 per cent of the 1.7 million SEN children have been wrongly identified the report claims.

Ofsted’s chief inspector, Christine Gilbert, said: "Although we saw some excellent support for children with special educational needs, and a huge investment of resources, overall there needs to be a shift in direction."

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ms. Gilber continued: "We felt that schools and teachers were well intentioned but they were over-diagnosing the problems – teachers in the classroom weren’t confident they could deal with the problems.& lt;br />

"We feel teachers and schools need to have more confidence themselves about looking at what are barriers to learning."

The report’s author, Janet Thompson, said these cases included children whose general educational needs had not been identified early enough – such as children who struggled with reading and later developed behavioural difficulties as a result.

But, she said, there were also cases where schools had labelled students as having SEN – such as GCSE students becoming demotivated – when they just needed better support.

The Teaching Unions are critical of the report’s assessment on putting the blame on schools and teachers.

"Teachers do a great job in often very difficult circumstances to meet the needs of all their pupils, and for Ofsted to suggest otherwise is both insulting and wrong," Christine Blower, General Secretary of NUT said.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) says it is saddened but unsurprised by the poor provision and low standards revealed in Ofsted’s review of special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, published today.

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society (NAS) said;

“Ofsted’s important report exposes a number of key failings within the SEN system and crucially recognises that children with complex needs, such as autism, are not getting the help they need in the classroom.

“A great many parents of children with autism have to fight huge battles to have their child’s needs recognised, understood and met. We hear terrible stories of parents who have their educational concerns dismissed. They a re told their child is simply naughty or even that they have made up their diagnosis.

“So many parents say a statement is a valuable and essential tool in helping to fight for their child’s rights and to hold schools to account if they fail to provide appropriate support.

Sarah Teathers, the Children’s Minister is looking to reform the system to provide more choice for parents.

“There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach for children with autism, who have very specific needs. We urge the Government to consider these in the forthcoming Green paper on SEN. With the right support at the right time, children with SEN can and do flourish at school.”