How to Deal with Your Child Being Kicked Out of School

The British have increased their media and news coverage regarding misbehaving children in school in recent days. The topic usually ends with a solution that centers around removing troublemakers from the traditional classroom setting.

This time, however, the latest spin on this is to make the parents stay at home to look after them, once they have been thrown out of school.

It does annoy me, this kind of nonsense! At least this time there is some talk of keeping open (and maybe even building more) special schools.

The child has been kicked out of the regular classroom which demonstrates that they are having a tough time fitting in with the usual student setting. Then the solution must include finding an educational setting where the students can actually thrive, right?

This makes you to guess what you can do as a parent if you child has been sent home from school due to their behavior. Thinking about this in detail is my forte. Especially since I have had to deal with the similar issues with my oldest child.

1. You have not failed as a parent. Don't waste time having a pity party for yourself. Perhaps your parenting skills could use some improvement, but that is the case for just about everyone. Try to be a better parent by actively seeking out information through books and materials on raising kids.

2. The school has not failed to support your child. Your school does care about your child and maybe the mishandled education of your child is due to issues beyond their control like not having enough resources or poor teacher training.

3. Ask for help from the local education authority (LEA). They should be able to supply an alternative learning setting for your child. You need to be persistent when you contact them, but avoid being mean. You can ask your politicians and newspapers to help you get the engine humming if you need to.

4. DO be prepared to consider alternative placements, such as special schools or even residential placements. Better to deal with it now, than to have your child growing up with the bad behaviors!

5. Seek professionals to determine if your child has a learning disability, ADHD or Asperger's syndrome. These can wreak havoc in the classroom. There is an enviroment in which children who suffer from these conditions can excel. It is a matter of finding the right educational setting.

6. Don't ignore or gloss over your child's behavior or kid yourself into thinking that they are a model student. You may feel like defending your child and think that everyone is incorrect about his behavior. It is more productive to acknowledge that there might be a problem and work with help from the LEA to resolve the issue.

Those are just some of the issues you may have to deal with, so be prepared for them.

Hope that is of some help to you, if you are struggling with this at home. And, if you are an educator, please don't be one of the ones that keeps trotting out that nonsense about excluding children as being the solution! It helps no one, and solves no problems.