It’s time for schools to reflect on the discriminatory nature of excluding children with special educational needs, says Olivia Wybraniec
- The appellants had been preventing from bringing a claim for disability discrimination against their autistic son’s school after he was excluded for aggressive behaviour.
- The Upper Tribunal was asked to review the exception to protection from discrimination where there was a tendency to physical violence, on Convention grounds.
- The Upper Tribunal upheld the appeal, finding the Regulations failed to balance the rights of children with special educational needs and violated their Convention right to education without discrimination.
It is a difficult reality that some children with special educational needs face school exclusions due to behaviour which is a manifestation of those very needs. Even more problematic is that those children may previously have been prevented from bringing disability discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) because of an exclusion from the EqA 2010 for cases involving physical violence. The appellant parents in C & C v The Governing Body of a School; The Secretary of State for Education (First Interested
