Schools using zero-tolerance policies to discipline children with learning disabilities are likely to fall foul of the law.
That’s the view of expert education lawyer Erin Smart.
She issued the warning as education watchdog Ofsted produced new guidance on behaviour.
Lawyer Erin Smart says schools applying zero-tolerance behaviour policies may fall foul of the law
The Ofsted guidance highlights the need for “clear and effective behaviour and attendance policies with clearly defined consequences that are applied consistently and fairly by all staff”.
Zero-tolerance approach
Reports have characterised the guidance in a draft inspection handbook as a shift towards a “zero-tolerance” approach.
Smart, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said an uncompromising approach is likely to breach the Equality Act. This is because schools have a “duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils”.
In what has been seen as a test case, a judge ruled last August that a school acted unlawfully when it excluded an autistic boy. It followed the boy hitting a teaching assistant with a ruler, punching her and pulling her hair.
Judge Rowley ruled that “aggressive behaviour is not a choice for children with autism”.
Guidance targets ‘off-rolling’
The new Ofsted guidance also targets head teachers who “off-roll” pupils.
Off-rolling involves taking pupils off the school roll without using a formal exclusion, or by encouraging parents to remove them.
Heads have been accused of resorting to off-rolling to boost achievement. Pupils with special needs are acutely vulnerable to the practice.
19,000 taken off school roll
Schools removed around 19,000 pupils from their rolls before taking GCSEs in 2017. As many as one in three (30 per cent) of those off-rolled have special needs, Ofsted suggests.
Ofsted will now tell inspectors to brand as “inadequate” head teachers who off-roll pupils.
A spokesperson for Ofsted stressed an “orderly” environment is a “basic requirement for good learning”.
But the draft handbook also considers how well heads include special needs pupils, added the spokesperson.
Related:
- ‘Repugnant’ school exclusions banned
- UK Government is failing disabled people
- Exclusion forces parents to give up job
- Legal fight over exclusion for behaviour
- Schools ‘unable’ to stop exclusions
- MPs back call to cut school exclusions
Published: 30 January 2019
