Vulnerable & abandoned

HUNDREDS of parents are having applications for additional support needs schools rejected, a Sunday Mail investigation can reveal.

- BY JENNIFER HYLAND

HUNDREDS of parents are having applications for additional support needs schools rejected, a Sunday Mail investigation can reveal.

More than 500 primary and secondary school pupils were enrolled in mainstream education after being rejected from local authority specialist facilities last year.

It comes amid a national explosion in the number of children being diagnosed as having ASN (Additional Support Needs), including autism and ADHD.

The latest Scottish Government statistics show a record 299,445 children were classified as ASN this year - the equivalent of 43 per cent of the school roll.

Some pupils are streamed into specialist schools with smaller class sizes and additional facilities but the number of places is increasingly being outstripped by demand.

Meanwhile squeezed council budgets mean limited assistants, educational psychologists and speech and language therapists in mainstream schools.

One mum, who asked not to be named, said: "We knew our daughter wouldn't be able to cope in mainstream school but our application for an ASN school place was turned down.

"There needs to be an increase in ASN placements but also a massive increase in resources and support so children who have to attend mainstream can.

"Our children have the right to be educated."

Another added: "We applied for our son to attend an additional support school but we were told the places are so limited that we would be very lucky to ever be given a place."