15/02/2026
The end of this week is an important deadline for many SEND parents - 15 February is the statutory deadline for local authorities to issue finalised EHCPs for children who are moving to a new phase of education, naming the school they will be moving to in September.
This early deadline allows time for an appeal if the parents consider that the setting named is not appropriate for their child - or if no setting is named at all.
For the moment, my son’s EHCP names only a type of setting. Things are moving in the background, though, and we should have some certainty soon after half term.
It’s a funny old time.
Some people know their child won’t cope in a mainstream school and are desperate to find the right specialist setting.
Others are equally desperate to keep their children in mainstream settings for as long as possible.
There’s a bewildering array of options out there. There’s a legal right to send your child to a mainstream school if you choose to, but no equivalent right to a specialist school, other than the right which arises from a specialist setting being named in an EHCP.
When you have an EHCP, the LA consults schools to see whether they consider that they can meet the needs specified in the plan. Parents can ask for a particular school to be consulted.
In our case, a wide range of schools is being consulted for my son, including mainstream, mainstream with a specialist unit, specialist and independent (both mainstream and specialist). Most of these were identified by his EHC Coordinator, and there are some I’d never heard of. Each has its strengths, but the big questions are which will best suit his needs and which will actually offer him a place.
Being the parent of a child with SEND involves a lifelong series of shifts in expectations. Like thousands of other parents across the country, we’re going through some pretty seismic shifts at the moment.
If you know a parent whose child with SEND is due to start or change schools this year, give them some grace. There may be an earthquake going on in their brain this week.
