Legislation on special needs is discriminating against children with autism. Josephine Gardiner reports.
Last week a High Court judge ruled that Cheshire County Council’s refusal to top up the fees of an autistic six-year-old girl attending the Higashi School in Boston, US, was wrong. Tracy Cherrih had found a businessman willing to contribute Pounds 20,000 towards the Pounds 53,000 fees, which would have made the council’s contribution no more than the cost of sending the girl, Hanna, to a local school. But the council refused, and the refusal was upheld by the Special Educational Needs Tribunal last December. Since then Hanna has been at home.