Illegal Exclusion and Reduced Timetables: SEND Rights When Schools Send Children Home

The phone call comes at 11am: "We'd like you to come and collect your child." No formal exclusion letter. No mention of a fixed-term suspension. Just an expectation that you will come and take your child home, and that this is somehow normal.

It is not normal. It is, in most cases, unlawful. And it is one of the most common ways schools manage SEND children whose needs they cannot or will not meet.

The Legal Framework for Exclusion

A school headteacher has the power to exclude a pupil only by issuing a formal exclusion — either a fixed-term suspension or a permanent exclusion. These are legal processes governed by the School Exclusions statutory guidance (DfE, September 2023), and they carry specific procedural requirements: written notification to parents, reasons for the exclusion, the right to make representations to the governing board, and (for longer suspensions) access to education from day six.

Anything that does not follow this formal process is not a lawful exclusion. Sending a child home informally — by phone call, by asking the parent to "collect" the child, by telling the child to go home at the start of the day — is not a lawful exclusion. It is an unrecorded removal from education that has no legal status.

Reduced Timetables and Why They Are Usually Unlawful

A reduced timetable means a child is regularly attending school for only part of the day or part of the week. For SEND children, this is often used as a management strategy: the school argues that the child cannot cope with a full school day, or that the environment is causing distress and a gradual build-up is "in the child's best interests."

DfE guidance is unambiguous: schools should not use part-time timetables to manage behaviour or avoid formal exclusion. A part-time timetable is permissible only in highly exceptional circumstances — for example, a medical reintegration following a significant health episode — and only if:

• It has an explicit, defined end date
• It is regularly reviewed
• It has the explicit, written consent of the parent

Without parental consent, a reduced timetable is an unlawful exclusion. A child of compulsory school age has the right to a full-time education. A school cannot unilaterally reduce that to manage its own capacity problems.

If your child is currently on a reduced timetable that you agreed to verbally, under pressure, or without fully understanding that you were entitled to refuse, you can withdraw that consent. Put it in writing to the headteacher, citing the DfE guidance on attendance and exclusions.

Off-Rolling: The Most Serious Form

Off-rolling is the practice of removing a pupil from a school's roll without a permanent exclusion order — typically by pressuring parents to deregister the child for elective home education (EHE), persuading them to "voluntarily" transfer to another school, or simply moving the child to alternative provision without following the correct legal process.

Ofsted identifies off-rolling as a specific safeguarding concern. It is also directly harmful to SEND children because:

• If a parent deregisters for elective home education, the local authority's duty to secure Section F EHCP provision ceases. The family loses their statutory entitlement.
• The child loses access to the SEN support their school was providing.
• The local authority's annual EHCP review obligations are disrupted.

If a school is suggesting your child would be "better placed" elsewhere, or suggesting that home education might suit them, treat this as a red flag. Seek independent advice before agreeing to anything that involves removing your child from the roll. IPSEA's guidance on EHE and EOTAS is essential reading in this scenario — the distinction between voluntary home education and LA-funded EOTAS (Education Otherwise Than At School) can have enormous financial consequences.

EHCP Provision During Exclusion

When a child with an EHCP is lawfully excluded (fixed-term suspension), the LA still retains its duty under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to secure the provision specified in Section F. A suspension does not suspend the EHCP. The LA must arrange or maintain that provision during the exclusion period.

In practice, LAs routinely fail to do this. Document any gap in provision during an exclusion period carefully — it is a Section 42 breach and grounds for complaint or LGSCO referral.

Informal Exclusion as a Disability Discrimination Claim

If a school is repeatedly sending a SEND child home informally, applying behaviour sanctions without considering the child's disability, or using part-time timetables without consent, these actions may constitute disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Under section 15 of the Equality Act, a school discriminates when it treats a pupil unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of their disability. A child being sent home for verbal outbursts caused by their autism, without the school first considering what reasonable adjustments might have prevented the situation, meets that definition.

A disability discrimination claim is made to the SEND Tribunal using Form SEND4 within six months of the discriminatory act. Claims for discrimination related to exclusions use Form 4A or 4B. The claim is against the school's responsible body (governing board or academy trust), not the local authority.

What to Do If Your Child Is Being Illegally Excluded

Step 1: Do not comply silently. If the school telephones asking you to collect your child, say: "I want to understand the basis for this request. Is this a formal exclusion? If so, I require the formal exclusion letter by end of day." If it is not a formal exclusion, say so in writing to the headteacher: "I have been asked to collect my child without a formal exclusion being issued. I understand that informal exclusions are unlawful and I am recording this in writing."

Step 2: Document every incident. Date, time, reason given by school, method of communication (phone call, email, face-to-face). Keep this as a running log.

Step 3: Write to the headteacher formally. State that you are aware informal exclusions are unlawful, that your child has the right to a full-time education, and that any future removal from school must be conducted through the formal exclusion process with all associated parental rights.

Step 4: Contact the LA's SEN team. If your child has an EHCP and is being repeatedly excluded or placed on a reduced timetable, the LA has a duty to ensure the EHCP is being implemented. Write formally, citing the Section 42 duty.

Step 5: Consider a formal complaint and Ofsted report. Informal exclusions can be reported to Ofsted. You can also file a formal complaint with the LA and, if unresolved, with the LGSCO. Schools are required to record all absences accurately; evidence of unreported absences is itself a compliance failure.

The Bigger Picture: When Exclusion Signals Unmet Needs

Schools that repeatedly send SEND children home, place them on reduced timetables, or pressure families toward removal from the roll are almost always signalling that they cannot adequately meet the child's needs. That is important information.

If a child's needs genuinely cannot be met in the current setting, the correct response is an Annual Review to consider whether a specialist placement should be named in Section I of the EHCP — not repeated informal exclusions that leave the child without education while the LA avoids its duties.

The England SEND Tribunal Playbook covers both the exclusion challenge process and the Tribunal route for securing a specialist placement when mainstream provision is breaking down. Exclusion is often a symptom of a placement problem — and the solution to a placement problem is a Tribunal appeal with a strong evidence base, not accepting that the child is simply "too difficult."

You are not obliged to accept unlawful exclusions. You are not obliged to agree to a reduced timetable. You are entitled to demand a full-time education for your child in a setting that is equipped to meet their needs — and the law gives you specific tools to enforce that entitlement.

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