About consultation

Schools have to make adjustments that help their students to join in. But first, they must discuss this with you and your child. This is called consultation in the DSE.

You should be part of conversations about:

• Whether your child’s disability affects their ability to join in. • Whether an adjustment needs to be made to help them join in. • What this adjustment could be. • Whether this adjustment is reasonable. • Whether another adjustment needs to be made instead. There may be a few different ones that can be used. Some may be easier to make than others. If a different one is used, it should be equally as helpful for your child.

These conversations should happen before any decisions are made.

Consultation should also happen regularly during your child’s time at school, for example: • before they enrol • at the start of every school year • when your child has a new teacher • when you or the school identify an issue or barrier that needs to be solved.