# Education Act 1996, Section 342: Approval of non-maintained special schools.

Extent: E+W

(1) The Secretary of State may approve under this section any school in England which—
(a) is specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs, and
(b) is not a community or foundation special school or an Academy school,
and may give ... approval before or after the school is established.
(2) Regulations may make provision as to the requirements which are to be complied with as a condition of approval under subsection (1) above.
(3) Any school which was a special school immediately before 1st April 1994 shall be treated, subject to subsection (4) below, as approved under this section.
(4) Regulations may make provision as to—
(a) the requirements which are to be complied with by a school while approved under this section, and
(b) the withdrawal of approval from a school (including approval treated as given under subsection (3)) at the request of the proprietor or on the ground that there has been a failure to comply with any prescribed requirement.
(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsections (2) and (4), the requirements which may be imposed by the regulations include requirements—
(a) which call for arrangements to be approved by the Secretary of State, or
(b) as to the organisation of any special school as a primary school or as a secondary school.
(5ZA) Regulations made by virtue of subsections (2) and (4)(a) must impose—
(a) a requirement for an allergy safety policy (within the meaning of section 100A of the Children and Families Act 2014) to be in place at a school,
(b) requirements that correspond or are similar to the duties imposed by section 100A(4) to (6) of that Act (duty to review and publicise policy etc), and
(c) requirements that correspond or are similar to the duties imposed on the appropriate authority for a school by regulations under section 100B of that Act (allergy safety regulations),
and the requirement referred to in paragraph (a) includes a requirement for the policy to comply with provision made by regulations under section 100A(3) of that Act.
(5A) Regulations shall make provision for securing that, so far as practicable, every pupil attending a school in England that is approved under this section—
(a) receives religious education unless withdrawn from receiving such education in accordance with the wishes of the pupil's parent, and
(b) attends religious worship unless withdrawn from attendance at such worship—
(i) in the case of a sixth-form pupil, in accordance with the pupil's own wishes, and
(ii) in any other case, in accordance with the wishes of the pupil's parent.
(5B) In subsection (5A) “a sixth-form pupil” means a pupil who—
(a) has ceased to be of compulsory school age, and
(b) is receiving education suitable to the requirements of pupils over compulsory school age.
(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/342 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/education-act-1996/section-342
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.