Procedure for disability discrimination claims

The SEND Tribunal can hear claims about disability discrimination by a school under the Equality Act 2010.  If your claim is against a different kind of setting or a local authority then the claim must be brought in the County Court. 

The procedure is similar to that of bringing an appeal about an EHC needs assessment or EHC plan, which is referred to as a ‘SEN appeal’. There are some a few differences, which are set out below – you should read this section as well as the section on appealing to the SEND Tribunal in relation to SEN appeals. 

The SEND Tribunal has guidance on bringing a claim of disability discrimination against a school (but it has not been updated to refer to same disadvantage indirect discrimination yet).

There are different claim forms depending on whether the claim involves an exclusion or not, and whether the claim is being brought by a young person or a parent (they are called forms 4A and 4B and 26A and 26B). Claim forms can be found on the SEND Tribunal site. Check that you are using the right form. 

If you are also making a SEN appeal to the SEND Tribunal, you can request that they are ‘consolidated’ so that they are heard at the same hearing. However, you will need to complete a separate form for each claim.  You might want to take advice first about whether or not asking for your claim and appeal to be heard together is right in your case. 

You need to clearly set out and number all the issues you want the SEND Tribunal to resolve on your claim form. You will also need to clearly explain:

1. your child or young person’s disability if required due to the type of discrimination you want to make a claim about (please see our types of disability discrimination page for more)
2. the specific failure or unfavourable treatment you are saying happened
3. the date or date range when the failure/treatment happened
4. how that failure/treatment arises from or is linked to your child’s disability
5. the disadvantage that has been suffered as a result, and
6. the remedy you want the SEND Tribunal to order.

You will need copies of professional reports or other documents which help explain your child or young person’s disability (this is required for all types of claim except same disadvantage indirect discrimination). If there is a diagnosis of a particular condition, you must provide copies of documents showing this. You should submit this evidence with your claim form. 

You should also send copies of:

• their current EHC plan if they have one, and 

• any documents which might help the SEND Tribunal to understand what the disability discrimination claim is about. This could include correspondence, copies of documents sent from the school, or written statements from people who witnessed events. 

Please note that there are page limits in these claims. Please see ‘The bundle’ section on this page below.

If you are struggling to obtain information from the school then you could consider making a subject access request (for personal information) or a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (for non-personal information). Maintained schools (mainstream or special) and non-maintained special schools also have a legal duty to provide an individual’s educational record within 15 days of request and we have a template letter you can use to ask for this. 

The evidence you need will depend on the circumstances of your claim and you may need to seek advice about this, including checking if you are eligible for legal aid. 

It is important you provide evidence to support your claim. At the final hearing, the SEND Tribunal will usually make a decision on the basis of the evidence available. If you, or the school, has not provided evidence, this does not mean the SEND Tribunal will necessarily postpone the hearing. If evidence has not been provided, the SEND Tribunal will want to know whether there is a good reason for it. If there is not, or if the evidence is still not likely to be available next  time if the hearing is postponed, the SEND Tribunal is likely to proceed without that evidence, having given an opportunity for it to be provided.

If you are expecting to receive evidence after the evidence deadline, ask the SEND Tribunal to extend it. If helpful evidence that you were not expecting becomes available after the evidence deadline, you can ask the SEND Tribunal to accept it late. In both cases you need to use the Request for Change form and seek the school’s views on the request first.

If you need to make a request for the evidence deadline to be extended or for permission for late evidence to be accepted, explain why:

1. you cannot/could not submit the evidence any sooner​
2. the evidence is relevant to the issues in the appeal​
3. it can’t be given orally at the hearing and any other factors to persuade the Tribunal to accept it (like that the school already has it, so won’t be disadvantaged by not having seen it​), and
4. it would be not be “fair and just” for it to be excluded and is needed for the Tribunal to decide the appeal fairly​.

The registration letter from the SEND Tribunal should tell you: 

•  the hearing date, and 

•  individual case management directions decided by a Tribunal chair (judge) who has reviewed the paperwork you submitted – this may include a date for a telephone case management conference. 

The SEND Tribunal should also send the parent or young person copies of: 

• an Attendance Form to return to the Tribunal (you use this to tell the school and Tribunal who will be going to the hearing, including any representative and witnesses you may have), and 

• a Request for Change Form (this is used if you need to ask the Tribunal to do something, like extend a deadline for example). 

Witnesses

You will need to give the name and role of any witness you want to attend the hearing on the attendance form as explained above. The SEND Tribunal will not allow them to attend the hearing otherwise, unless they consider there are exceptional circumstances.

All witnesses must provided a written witness statement or report by the final evidence deadline.

You can automatically have up to five witnesses, this is likely to be more than enough but if you need more you can ask the SEND Tribunal for permission using the Request for Change form (having sought the school’s view first).

If you have someone you are confident would be helpful to attend as a witness and they are willing to attend but feel unable to unless they are ordered to attend (for example, a teacher who wants to support the family but has been told by their employer they cannot attend) then you can apply to the SEND Tribunal for a witness summons.  This application for a witness summons should be made using the Request for Change form, or form SEND30: Request for a Witness Summons. It should be requested well in advance of the hearing (unless the SEND Tribunal directs otherwise, a summons must give the witness at least 14 days’ notice of the hearing).

The name and address of the witness will need to be given, but this can be their workplace address. It will be necessary to say why this person’s evidence is important and why they might not attend voluntarily.

If granted, the summons will be sent to you and it is your responsibility to serve it on the witness.

Before requesting a witness summons, think very carefully about whether the witness is likely to be supportive as you won’t be able to control what they do and don’t say in the hearing. It may help to take advice on this.

Reasonable adjustments

It is best to let the SEND Tribunal know as soon as possible if you or any of your witnesses need adjustments to be made to be able to effectively participate in the claim and/or hearing. If you know you will need adjustments, request them on the claim form. Someone from the SEND Tribunal should then contact you to discuss them, if this doesn’t happen you should contact the Tribunal.

You can also explain on the attendance form any reasonable adjustments you or one of your witnesses may need to help you/them fully join in with the hearing. If there is not enough room on the form, you can also request these in writing and send your request to the SEND Tribunal. You should give the SEND Tribunal as much notice as you can.

What you should request will depend on what is needed, but it may include:

• more time to respond to questions
• for legal points to be explained (without you having to ask each time)
• for regular screen breaks if the hearing is to held online
• for a face to face hearing (you can also ask for an assistance dog to attend should you need that), or
• for someone to help you or one of your witnesses understand what is being said and to join in – these are called intermediaries. An intermediary won’t be on anyone’s ‘side’ but are there to stop misunderstanding and step in if needed to stop it.

Updates - progress and new issues

If the parties have made any progress in agreeing matters set out on the claim they should let the SEND Tribunal know. If new issues/matters have arisen after the claim form was submitted, then you will also need to let the SEND Tribunal know about these.

If you do not let the SEND Tribunal know about new developments and further disputed issues before the hearing, the SEND Tribunal may decline to address them at the hearing.

You should write to the SEND Tribunal to let it know about any new disputed issues (or progress made).

The bundle

Before the hearing, the school will gather all the documents submitted into an organised set, called ‘the bundle’.

There are detailed rules setting out what can, and cannot, go into the bundle, as well as how it is to be produced and issued. They are set out in the 2025 Bundle Practice Direction.

Unless an exception is granted by the SEND Tribunal, the page limits for this type of claim are as follows:

The core bundle, which contains all key documents, including your notice of claim and the school’s response, is limited to 100 pages. A Request for change form (explained on our SEN appeals pages) should  be used should this page limit need to be exceeded. 

Both parties shall automatically be entitled to submit up to 200 pages of evidence in addition to the documents in the core bundle in the claim. If you need to go over that limit, you should use a Request for Change form to ask permission and explain why the additional pages are needed.