You will have 15 days to comment on the draft plan. You can ask for a meeting to discuss it if you want one.
At that point you will also be able to request a specific school, or other setting, you want your child to attend. This could be a mainstream school or special school.
Your local authority then speaks to your chosen school, college or other place of learning to discuss your child’s needs and the support in the EHCP. This is called a consultation. The school or college should respond to this consultation within fifteen days.
Your local authority has 20 weeks from the date they receive the request for EHC needs assessment to issue the final EHCP to you.
Where there are exceptional circumstances, it may not be reasonable to expect local authorities and other partners to comply with the time limits above. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set out specific exemptions.
These include where:
• appointments with people from whom the local authority has requested information are missed by the child or young person (this only applies to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six weeks)
• the child or young person is absent from the area for a period of at least 4 weeks
• exceptional personal circumstances affect the child or his/her parent, or the young person, and
• the educational institution is closed for at least 4 weeks, which may delay the submission of information from the school or other institution (this does not apply to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six weeks.
At the end of the 20 week process, the local authority will finalise the plan and name a school or school type and issue the final plan.