forgotten message about schools

Somebody on left this message on this site but didn't get any answer. Since they are very interesting questions I am going to repeat them and see if anybody has an answer for them.
Thank you

The whole school thing has me a little flustered!  I think I've done enough research to have a basic understanding of how things work.  But it seems that you can move to an area with a good school and not necessarily be allowed to enroll your kids there.  I'm a bit of a control freak so it has me concerned!  I'd hate to choose a community because of a particular school and then there's no place for the kids!  Here in the states, the public school for your area is the one your kids go to.  It doesn't matter how many kids already go there.  You're guaranteed a spot.  Can I enroll the kids mid-term?  It's unlikely that we would be there by September.  How does that work?  My three youngest should be OK.  They're entering kindergarten, first and third grade.  The youngest has some developmental delays and is mildly autistic.  He's expected to "close the gap" and we're putting him into a regular class.  But he requires some speech, language and occupational therapy services in the time being.  But I've noticed that many of the schools I've looked at there have services for special needs.  I, obviously, have lots of questions!  I'm really grateful for all the help!   
 
 
 

Unfortunately, living in a catchment area of a school does not guarentee a place there.  You have to check which school have places.  You can do this mid-term, but be warned the better schools have waiting lists and are notoriously hard to get into.

Schools here are not as progressive when it comes to special needs.  You probably won't find the support and funding that you're used to in the states.  Speech and language and OT tends to be dealt with outside of the school through the NHS.
The special needs coordinator is called the Senco.  Children with special needs are placed on what is called a statement-there are five levels of this.  I'll have a look around and see if I can find some links for you. 

My son is almost 5 and shows signs of mild autism and  problems with language processing.  He is in mainstream classes but has been seen by the senco and speech therapist.  They seem really on top of things and are helping him tremendously.  They met with me the other day and we reviewed a care plan that had been written for him.  All in all I am pleased with his school's special needs program but then I am pretty unfamiliar with what kinds of programs that they have in the schools back in the US.

I have a feeling that I will have a problem with trying to enroll my 6 year (or he will be by the time we come over) into the school where we will be living.  It is a Catholic School and I have contacted them already but they say they are already filled.  I am not sure what other options I will have and what other school will be in the area where we will be relocating to.  I just would like for him to go to a Catholic school because here in the states Catholic schools are very expensive to attend.