Appealing a school placement in England

You’ll find details of how to appeal in the local authority’s admission letter outlining your offer. The letter will also give you a deadline to appeal by. You can only make one appeal for each school that doesn’t offer you a place. If more than one school declines to admit your child, you can make separate appeals.

You must be given 20 school days to send in your written appeal. In some areas you may be able to submit your appeal online.

The appeal must be heard within 40 school days. You should receive 10 school days’ notice of when the hearing will be.

The appeal will be heard by a panel of three people appointed by the local authority. They must make sure that these people are independent of the local authority. They must also be given training.

The panel should include people with experience in education and ‘lay people’. Lay people are people who are not involved in managing schools.

The panel should let you know their decision in writing within five school days of the hearing.

If your child has an EHCP how you appeal is different. You must appeal through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) England.

To appeal a school placement, you will need to appeal Section I of the EHCP. Section I sets out the ‘placement’ or the school your child is expected to attend.

You can appeal other sections of an EHCP. In this case, you’ll need a mediation certificate before you can register your appeal. This is a certificate that says that you considered or underwent mediation.

It can be a good idea to appeal against multiple parts of an EHCP. If you only appeal the placement in Section I, you won't be able to discuss your child’s needs and the provision they require. You will only be able to discuss whether the schools in question can make the provision. These are set out in section F (special educational provision).

For more information on appealing sections of an EHCP, contact our Helpline.

The timescales for appealing are different depending on what you want to appeal.

Appeal a school placement (Section I)

The local authority will send you a letter with their decision. If you are only appealing against placements (Section I), you must appeal within 2 months of the date on this letter. You don’t need a mediation certificate.

Appeal multiple sections of an EHCP

You can also appeal other sections of an EHCP.

• Section B (special educational needs)
• Section F (special educational provision)

To appeal these sections, you must contact a mediation adviser before appealing. You must appeal within 1 month from the date on the mediation certificate or 2 months of the date on the decision letter from the local authority. Whichever is later.

Find out more about:

The local authority has 30 days to respond to the appeal after SENDIST has registered it. They will inform you of the date and time of the hearing at least 10 days before it’s due.

You should receive the decision within 15 days of the hearing. The local authority has 2 weeks from the decision date to make the changes to school placement.