COVID19 APPEALS UPDATE - APRIL 2020

The Department for Education has produced further guidance regarding school admission appeals during the current Coronavirus situation.  

The main changes are:

• disapply the requirement that appeals panels must be held in person and instead give flexibility for panel hearings to take place either in person, by telephone, video conference or through a paper-based appeal where all parties can make representations in writing;
• relax the rules with regard to what happens if one of the 3 panel members withdraws (temporarily or permanently) to make it permissible for the panel to continue with and conclude the appeal as a panel of 2;
• amend the deadlines relating to appeals for the time that the new regulations are in force.

In response to this schools will need to:

• work closely with their appointed Clerk to establish how the appeals will be heard in order to ensure that they continue to be fair and held in line with the requirements of the School Admission Appeals Code;
• Continue to book three appeal panel members in line with the requirements of the Code;
• Ensure that the appeals timetable on the school’s website is amended if necessary to ensure that parents have at least 28 calendar days from the date that they were notified that their child’s application was unsuccessful to submit an appeal and that parents are given 14 calendar days notice of the date of their appeal hearing (parents can still waive their right to the 14 days notice if they wish).

Timelines: