Additional Support
for Learning

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Your rights – as a parent you have the right to:

• Ask your child’s school or education authority to find out whether your child has additional support needs
• Request a specific type of assessment and/or examination for your child when their education authority is proposing to formally identify whether they have additional support needs.
• Receive information or advice about your child’s additional support needs.

Your child’s right:

If your child is aged 16 or over, they have the same rights as you, listed above.

Duties on Schools and Local Education Authorities

Schools and Local Education Authorities must:

• Make arrangements to identify children who have additional support needs.
• Comply with your request if you ask it to find out whether your child has additional support needs. It can only refuse if it considers your request unreasonable.

Pre-school and school-age children

All education authorities must make sure they have systems for identifying which pre-school and school-age children have additional support needs.

In most cases, schools or pre-schools using the resources available to them will do this.

If necessary, other agencies such as social work, health or voluntary agencies will be called on to help out. Often a staged assessment approach will be used and the approach can vary across authorities. You as a parent have the right to ask for information about the method. It should look at all aspects of your child’s circumstances that may be giving rise to additional support needs.

However, if you are concerned that your child might have additional support needs that are not being identified, you have the right to ask your education authority to assess your child to find out what those needs are. You should make your request in writing, by letter or email, outlining your reasons for it. To make your request you can use any method that can be kept for future reference.

This could include a CD, tape, Video recording. The education authority must comply with your request unless it regards it as unreasonable, e.g. an assessment has been carried out recently and there has been no change in circumstances, or it may not be in the best interests of the child or young person.