How do I choose a secondary school for my autistic child?

Visit secondary schools in Year 5, judging each on autism support, sensory environment and SENCO. With an EHCP, you can name your preferred school in Section I, and the council must agree unless an exception applies.

Visit early and judge each school against your child

Autumn of Year 5 or the start of Year 6 is the moment to begin, because the deadlines move fast once Year 6 starts. Visit in person rather than relying on the website or the open evening tour. The National Autistic Society suggests weighing each school on the things that actually make or break an autistic child’s day:

1. How experienced the SENCO (the teacher who coordinates SEN support) is with autism, and how much capacity they have.
2. The sensory environment - noise in corridors, lighting, the size and feel of the dining hall.
3. What happens at unstructured times like break and lunch, when most autistic pupils struggle.
4. How they plan transition and whether staff understand autism.

If your child has an EHCP, you can name the school

This is the legal lever the “what to look for” guides leave out. If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you can ask for a specific school to be written into Section I - the part of the plan that names the placement. You can request a mainstream or special school, a maintained school, an academy or free school, or an approved independent special school (section 38, Children and Families Act 2014). The council must name the school you ask for unless it is unsuitable for your child, or your child being there would harm the education of other pupils or be an inefficient use of money (section 39). The burden is on the council to prove an exception - not on you to prove the school is right.

One thing parents often get wrong: a mainstream school cannot turn your child away because of their SEN. Only the council can refuse your preference, and only on those three grounds, which it has to evidence.

Watch the 15 February deadline

For a move from primary to secondary, the council must amend and finalise the EHCP, with the secondary school named, by 15 February of the year your child transfers (Regulation 18, SEND Regulations 2014). That date is the clock that governs everything. It is set early on purpose, so that if the council names a school you disagree with you still have time to use mediation and, if needed, appeal Section I to the SEND Tribunal before September. Miss it being raised and you lose that runway.

If your child does not have an EHCP, you apply through the ordinary secondary admissions round on your council’s website (deadline usually 31 October of Year 6). Before you list preferences, ask each school for its SEN Information Report and book a conversation with the SENCO about what support your child would get.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.