Major concern over lack of special educational needs provision in North Yorkshire
Campaigners are calling for more investment to create additional school places
Last updated 22nd May 2023
There are major concerns over the lack of special educational schools in North Yorkshire.
Campaigners say it's leaving some pupils with a daily 60 mile commute just to get to class.
Sue Wilkinson lives in Sherburn in Elmet - she says she had to fight to get her autistic son a suitable place.
She has this message for other families trying to get their son or daughter into a school that they think would be appropriate: "You have to be extremely determined, extremely vocal and extremely persistent, you have to put all three things in a pot, you might get there, but it's not always a given."
"The one thing that comes across more and more is that we are not being heard and that it is a fight and a lot of people are just getting tired of the fight, so they just give up and I know that is just not acceptable. "
Sue says having a child go to school so far away from home bring additional challenges: "That's isolating, so you've got an educational special need and you've got autism, and you are not being with your friends, you are not making that community".
"It's awful, the provision in North Yorkshire is very restricted and the provision in Selby is just inadequate."