Students with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) are more likely than their classroom peers to experience issues with bullying, grooming and exploitation and can also face issues with friendships, communication and understanding that could lead to safeguarding concerns.
Some children can be very trusting without grasping the dangers of sharing information and interacting with strangers online, including the motives of other children and young people.
Others may not interpret meanings and language in the same way as other students and some may intentionally break boundaries without understanding the outcomes.
All these factors are significant and should be covered in detail within a school safeguarding and child protection policy. Teaching SEND students about digital safety therefore requires different tools to help them navigate the digital world around them.
We have listed below links to valuable Partner resources to provide schools with tips, advice and videos to support students.
Childnet STAR SEND Toolkit
https://www.childnet.com/resources/star-send-toolkit/
Internet Matters: Supporting Children & Young People with SEND
How can Securus Help Protect SEND Students?
Securus monitors student activity across all devices and applications on the school network and is a robust solution to safeguard SEND students from harms taking place, providing DSLs with hard evidence of any incident related to a student who is possibly vulnerable.
The Securus Library covers many topics of concern that are relevant to the safety of SEND students, providing screenshot evidence of incidents taking place.
Share this InfoGraphic with SEND students to explain how Securus safeguards them:
