ABSTRACT
Children have rights and parents have duties and responsibilities towards them, including care and protection. These principles are enshrined in legislation.
The Warnock Report, Special Educational Needs: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People (DES, 1978), was the catalyst for
• Practical implications of SEN legislation for parents, teachers and professionals
• Provision in Scotland • Provision in Northern Ireland • Provision in the Republic of Ireland • Provision in the United States of America • Provision in England and Wales • The implications of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 for
those with SEN • The duties and responsibilities of maintained and independent schools
arising from SENDA 2001 • The SENDIST guidelines for making a claim • What are special educational needs? • A SEN parents’ charter of needs • The Parent Partnership Service • Guidelines for the content of IEPs • What do parents find useful to know about the school’s provision for SEN
pupils? • What is a statement of special educational needs and what provision
should it include? • The implications of the Children Act 2004 • Summary and conclusions
change in policy and provision for children and young people with ‘special educational needs’ and changed much of the terminology and the exclusion policies used previously. Many of the recommendations of the report were included in the Education Act 1981. It stated that ‘the successful education of children with special educational needs is dependent on the full involvement of their parents; indeed unless the parents are seen as equal partners in the education process, the purpose of our report will be frustrated’. The Education Act 1986 stipulated that schools should have parent representatives on the governing body. The Education Act 1988 required schools to send parents an annual progress report about their child.
