SEND Rights at School: What the Law Actually Requires

1st year classroom, Hallfield Primary School by David Hawgood (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

SEND rights at school are not one right. They come from three different pieces of law, they have three different levels of teeth, and schools and councils rarely explain which one you are relying on in any given meeting. Knowing the difference is what turns a polite conversation into a decision.

This page sets out what each duty actually says, where the enforceable ones are, and what the 2026 reform programme does and does not change. It applies to England.

The three sources of SEND rights

The Children and Families Act 2014. Section 66 puts a duty on mainstream schools to use their best endeavours to make the special educational provision a pupil's needs call for. Real, but soft: there is no tribunal for a school that runs a thin version of it.
The Equality Act 2010. Separate, parallel and in some ways stronger. It bites where a child is disabled, and disability under the Act is a wider category than most parents assume: a long-term physical or mental impairment with a substantial adverse effect on day to day activities. Many children on SEN support are covered by both Acts at once.
An EHC plan, under section 42. The only genuinely hard duty. Section 42(2) says the local authority must secure the specified special educational provision, and section 42(3) puts the same obligation on the responsible commissioning body for any health care provision named in the plan.

The reasonable adjustments duty, and the bit schools are exempt from

Schedule 13 of the Equality Act 2010 is precise about which reasonable adjustment requirements apply to schools, and it is worth knowing because it cuts both ways.

Schools must comply with the first requirement, changing a provision, criterion or practice that puts a disabled pupil at a substantial disadvantage. That is the one that covers a uniform rule, a behaviour policy applied without regard to a communication need, a no-phones rule for a child who uses one as an assistive device, a rigid attendance policy, or a PE requirement.

Schools must also comply with the third requirement, providing auxiliary aids and services. Laptops, radio aids, coloured overlays, writing slopes, ear defenders and assistive software all sit here.

Schools are not caught by the second requirement, altering physical features. That is deliberate: physical access in schools runs through the separate statutory duty to prepare and implement an accessibility plan, which covers increasing access to the curriculum, improving the physical environment and improving information. So "we cannot put in a lift" is a fair answer under Schedule 13, and "we will not buy a writing slope" is not.

What the school must publish, and what it tells you

Every mainstream school must publish a SEN information report and review it annually. It has to say what kinds of need the school provides for, how it identifies and assesses need, how it adapts the curriculum, what specialist expertise it has, how it evaluates the effectiveness of its provision, and how it involves parents. Every mainstream school must also have a designated SENCO who is a qualified teacher.

Read the SEN information report before you enrol, not after the first problem. It is a public document, it is usually two clicks from the school's home page, and a vague one is information in itself. Our guide to choosing a school covers what else to look for, and choosing a school for a child with SEND goes further on this specific question.

Where the enforceable duties actually start

The honest structure of the system is this. At SEN support you are negotiating, with a soft duty behind you and a strong evidence trail as your leverage. With an EHC plan you are enforcing, because section 42 is an absolute duty on the council rather than an aspiration. Our comparison of SEN support and an EHCP sets out what changes on the day the plan is finalised.

The statutory clock on getting there is fixed:

Six weeks from your request for an EHC needs assessment for the council to tell you whether it will assess, under regulation 5 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. A refusal must come with notice of your right of appeal, the time limit and mediation information.
20 weeks from the request to the finalised plan, under regulation 13. Not 20 weeks from the decision to assess; 20 weeks from the request.
Narrow exceptions only, chiefly school closures of four weeks or more, exceptional personal circumstances, or the child being away from the area. Staff shortages and backlogs are not on the list.

You do not need the school's agreement to make the request. See how to apply for an EHCP.

Admissions, exclusions and exams

On admissions, once a school is named in section I of a finalised EHC plan, it must admit the child. The school's opportunity to object comes during the consultation before the plan is finalised, not afterwards.

On exclusions, disability discrimination law applies in full. A permanent exclusion for behaviour that arises from a disability the school has failed to make adjustments for is the clearest discrimination claim in the system, and claims against schools in England go to the First-tier Tribunal rather than a court. Our page on school exclusions covers the process.

On exams, access arrangements are the exam-hall version of reasonable adjustments: extra time, a reader, a scribe, a word processor, separate invigilation. They have to reflect the child's normal way of working, which means the case is built over years of classroom practice, not in the term before GCSEs.

What the 2026 reforms do, and when

The government published its Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, on 23 February 2026, alongside a consultation, SEND reform: putting children and young people first, which closed on 18 May 2026. The proposals are substantial: more children with SEND taught in mainstream schools, a four-level model of support described as universal, targeted, targeted plus and specialist, digital Individual Support Plans, and EHC plans reserved for the most complex needs.

The timetable matters more than the content for any parent making decisions this year. The reformed system is not expected to come into effect until September 2029, and no changes to support received through EHC plans are proposed before at least September 2030. Until then, the duties on this page are the law, an EHC plan is still the enforceable instrument, and the 20-week clock still runs. Anyone telling you it is not worth applying because the system is changing has the dates wrong.

How to use a duty in a meeting

Name the duty. "This is a reasonable adjustment request under the Equality Act" gets a different answer from "could you please consider".
Ask for the decision in writing, with the reason. A school that has to write down why an adjustment is unreasonable often decides it is reasonable.
Ask what was tried, for how long, and what the data shows. Two or three documented cycles of assess, plan, do, review that have not closed the gap is the strongest evidence for a needs assessment request.
Keep the paper. Emails, meeting notes, the provision map, the SEN information report you were given. Every route out of a stuck situation runs on the record.
Use the free help. Every area has a SENDIASS service, and it is independent of the council's decision-making.

Frequently Asked Questions

What SEND rights does my child have at school?

Three separate sets of rights, from three separate places. Under section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014 a mainstream school must use its best endeavours to make the special educational provision your child's needs call for. Under the Equality Act 2010 it must make reasonable adjustments and provide auxiliary aids so a disabled pupil is not put at a substantial disadvantage. And if your child has an education, health and care plan, section 42 requires the local authority to secure the special educational provision the plan specifies.

Do schools have to make reasonable adjustments?

Yes, and it is not discretionary. Schedule 13 of the Equality Act 2010 requires schools to meet the first and third reasonable adjustment requirements: changing a provision, criterion or practice, and providing auxiliary aids and services. Schools are the one education sector not caught by the second requirement, alterations to physical features, which is instead handled through the separate duty to have an accessibility plan. Refusing an adjustment because of cost alone is rarely defensible; refusing to consider it at all is not.

Is the duty in an EHC plan enforceable?

Yes, and this is the single biggest difference between an EHC plan and SEN support. Section 42(2) says the local authority must secure the specified special educational provision. It is an absolute duty, not a target, and it falls away only where the parent or young person has made suitable alternative arrangements. If a plan says two hours of speech and language therapy a week, two hours is what the council owes.

How long should an EHC needs assessment take?

The council has six weeks from your request to tell you whether it will assess, under regulation 5 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, and 20 weeks from the request to issue the finalised plan, under regulation 13. There are narrow exceptions, mostly long school closures and exceptional personal circumstances. Delay beyond those limits is a breach, not a queue, and it is worth putting in writing that you know the date.

Does the 2026 SEND white paper change my child's rights now?

No. The Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, was published on 23 February 2026 and the accompanying consultation closed on 18 May 2026. The reformed system is not expected to take effect until September 2029, and no changes to support received through EHC plans are proposed before at least September 2030. Every duty described on this page is the law today and will be for years.

Can a school refuse to admit a child with an EHC plan?

Not if it is named in the plan. Once a school is named in section I of a finalised EHC plan it must admit the child, and that applies to mainstream academies and maintained schools alike. The school can object during the consultation before the plan is finalised, on grounds such as unsuitability or incompatibility with the efficient education of others, but once the name is in, the place follows.

Sources

Children and Families Act 2014, section 42: legislation.gov.uk
Children and Families Act 2014, section 66: legislation.gov.uk
Equality Act 2010, Schedule 13 (reasonable adjustments: education): legislation.gov.uk
Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, regulations 5 and 13: legislation.gov.uk
Department for Education, Every child achieving and thriving (Schools White Paper, 23 February 2026): gov.uk
SEND reform: putting children and young people first (consultation, closed 18 May 2026): gov.uk, and the House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10550 for the September 2029 and September 2030 implementation dates
SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years: gov.uk