Education Legal Advice for Parents

The process for getting child Special Educational Needs support can be long and complicated, with the need to jump through a lot of different hoops and ensure all of the right evidence is provided. Getting expert support can significantly increase the chances of your child getting the support they need.

Our expertise with Special Educational Needs includes:

• Requests for EHCPs
• Support for the EHCP assessment process
• EHCP appeals
• Residential care fee appeals

Find out more about how we can help with Special Educational Needs legal advice.

Being excluded from school, whether temporarily or permanently, can have a huge impact on a child’s education, their confidence and their future. It is therefore important that parents do everything they can to make sure their child is treated fairly and any issues with an exclusion are raised promptly and effectively.

Our expertise with school exclusions includes:

• Fixed term exclusions
• Permanent exclusions
• Exclusion appeals to school governors
• Referring a school exclusion to the Independent Review Panel (IRP)

Find out more about how we can help with school exclusions.

Raising a complaint against your child’s school can be a very intimidating prospect, so getting expert support can make all the difference. This can ensure you have a sound basis for your complaint and that you are able to follow the process for raising a complaint effectively.

Our expertise with school complaints includes:

• Advice on whether you have grounds for a complaint
• Support for dealing with school complaints procedures
• Escalating complaints where you are not happy with the outcome of a school complaints process

Find out more about how we can help with school complaints.

If your child has been rejected from their first-choice school, it can be devastating for their education and confidence. However, in many cases it is possible to challenge school admissions decisions and secure your child a place at their first-choice school.

Our expertise with school admission appeals includes:

• Infant Class Appeals
• In-Year Admission Appeals
• Secondary School Appeals
• SSEN Adjacent Appeals

Find out more about how we can help with school admission appeals.

Parents who send their children to private school justifiably have high expectations of the level of educational support their children should receive. If you are unhappy with your child’s education or need to respond to a dispute raised by your child’s school, we can help.

Our expertise in disputes with independent schools includes:

• Breach of Contract
• Expulsion, Suspension, or Removal Requests
• Issues around non-payment of school fees
• Complaints and Grievance

Find out more about how we can help with disputes with independent schools.

Discrimination against a child on the basis of a characteristic protected under the Equality Act 2010 is illegal. If you believe your child has been subject to such discrimination, our educational law solicitors can help you to take action.

Our expertise with discrimination in schools includes:

• Clear advice on whether you have a case for discrimination
• Raising discrimination concerns with a school or college
• Taking a discrimination claim to County Court
• Appealing an unfavourable outcome to a discrimination claim

Find out more about how we can help with discrimination in schools.

Where a school has failed in their duty of care to your child, this may amount to negligence. In such cases, you can take action to expose this negligence and ensure your child receives the right educational support to put things right.

Our expertise in school negligence claims includes:

• Children “left behind” in the classroom
• Failure to provide an adequate standard of education
• Failing to follow-up on non-attendance or truancy
• Lack of support for special educational needs or disabilities

Find out more about how we can help with school negligence.

Bullying can be devastating for children, with a real impact on their education, mental health and sense of self-worth. Cyberbullying can be particularly harmful as it means children are not even safe at home. Where a school or college has failed to protect your child from bullying, including cyber bullying, we can help you to put things right.

Our expertise with bulling and cyber bullying includes:

• Advice on your options
• Help building your case
• Raising concerns with your child’s school or college
• Taking action against schools and colleges for failure to address bullying

Find out more about how we can help with bulling and cyberbullying.