Ami Fletcher wrote:

> At present study support for students with dyslexia is funded through
> accessing the DSA.  The Institute's role is to provide administrative
> support and room space.  The study support tutor is free-lance and charges
> _30.00 per hour for individual sessions.  A student will usually have 1
> session per week for each academic term.  As I access the DSA on the
> students behalf, I have come accross a variety of ways in which the DSA is
> applied.  
> 
> Plymouth City Council has refused payment on the grounds that the cost of
> additional tuition should be met by the institution as part of their
> pastoral care role and that "Regulations specify the level of tuition cost
> that can be met by a Local Authority ad this has already been paid in
> respect of the tution fees."
> 
> Has anyone else come across this problem? Or, have you experience of a
> successful appeal?

This issue is something of a classic and used to come up often a few 
years ago. The answer usually lies in how the claim is phrased. 
Anything which hints at further tuition which the LEA can interpret 
as being of the regular academic variety will always, and correctly, 
get the thumbs down. The better approach is to stress that this is 
tuition which arises purely from the candidate's disability, is NOT 
about further mainstream tuition, and is designed to help overcome 
some of the effects of the disability on study.

Once this is made clear most objections are removed and many 
LEAs agree to fund such training from the DSAs and have done for 
several years. If you still meet resistance get back to me. The 
Access Centre in Plymouth may be able to put in a word for you or I 
could since I attended the South West Regional meeting 
of Awards Officers in Taunton only a few weeks ago.

Dave Laycock

Head of CCPD, Chair of NFAC
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL

tel. 0171-911-5161
fax. 0171-911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/


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