‘It’s shameful. Our children have been forgotten’

Gavin Jones (12) is about to graduate from his primary school in a few weeks but unlike the other children in his sixth class, he has no secondary school place. The reason, says his mother Ciara, is simple: he has autism.

“We’re seeing all his classmates excited about their new school, getting their uniforms, talking about what schoolbags they’ll have. But there’s nothing for him in the area. We’re exhausted applying to schools, only to be told ‘no’ time after time,” says Jones, a mother of four.

“We live in Dublin 15. There are probably more secondary schools here than anywhere else. But there’s no place for him. He’s been forgotten about and left behind because of his disability.”

The only option she has been given so far, she says, involves travelling for more than an hour and a half each way to a school outside the area.

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One of her biggest frustrations, she says, is that education authorities have known about his school needs for a decade. When Gavin received a diagnosis of autism at about two years of age, his psychologist’s report advised that he would need a special school or a special class in order to meet his needs.

He needs extra support because he finds it difficult to communicate. Gavin also has an intellectual disability and wears ear-defenders during the day to help prevent him feeling overwhelmed from noise and bustle in the school.

“He just couldn’t manage in a mainstream classroom… they have known that Gavin would need a special class at second level for years, but no one ever joined the dots. That’s 10 years of advance warning… then last week, we heard there were plans to create special education centres. It just sends the wrong message, creating segregated spaces. It’s so regressive.”

Almost 270 children with autism do not have an appropriate school place for next September

—  AsIAm survey

A new survey by the autism charity AsIAm indicates that there are many more children like Gavin who cannot find a school place to meet their needs next September.

Almost 270 children with autism do not have an appropriate school place for next September, according to a poll of parents conducted over the past week.

Most of these children have been assessed as requiring places in special schools or special classes attached to mainstream schools, but have been unable to secure them. Some reported unsuccessfully applying to dozens of schools.

The vast majority of respondents say they do not expect to get an offer between now and September, which would force families to accept school places without the necessary supports or to rely on home tuition, isolated from their peers.

There is also widespread dissatisfaction with education authorities. Some 90 per cent of respondents say they have not had sufficient support from the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is responsible for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. In cases where support was provided, it was most commonly a list of schools in the region.

Adam Harris, chief executive of AsIAm, says the findings are deeply troubling.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that behind every number is a child whose fundamental rights are being breached,” he says.

He says inappropriate placements mean that children are often travelling long distances from the communities they live, past schools which have opted not to provide the provision required.

In cases where children don’t have the support required or can’t cope, he says, they are often labelled as disruptive or put on reduced timetables.

“Children aren’t able to access the curriculum and, as a result, are often punished or sanctioned for their support needs, or they simply don’t regularly attend,” Harris says.

The fact that many of these cases are not recorded, he says, means children are invisible, but the consequences in the life of the child and family are immediate and far-reaching.

“Sometimes we hear the Department of Education quote large figures in terms of investment, but they mean nothing as long as the department is failing to fulfil their constitutional obligation to every child,” he says.

Minister of State with responsibility for special education Josepha Madigan has said that enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for the Government.

She says in excess of €2 billion – or over 25 per cent – of the Department of Education’s budget will be spent this year on providing additional teaching and care supports for children with special needs. Some 300 special classes were established in the current academic year alone.

In face of looming shortages in September next year, Ms Madigan has pledged to use legal powers to direct schools to establish additional special classes, if required. This process, however, is likely to take up to 12 months to complete.

This appeared to prompt a new plan – first reported in The Irish Times last week – to create “special educational needs centres” as an emergency response to a shortage of appropriate school places for vulnerable children.

This drew a fierce backlash from campaigners who said it amounted to segregated education. In subsequent comments, she said while the proposals were at an early stage, her “number one priority” remained increasing the number of special class places in schools throughout the country.

In the meantime, the NCSE, which has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide, has been tasked with finding appropriate places.

In response to questions from The Irish Times, it said it was aware of 130 children in the Dublin area who still required special school or special class places; it said recently announced special education places should cater to the needs of a further 37 children in the Dublin and Cork areas in September.

The NCSE said it was not aware of any child unable to attend a mainstream school due to the unavailability of appropriate supports.

The AsIAm survey, however, indicates that significantly more children are in need of special education placements than those in official figures.

When asked if there were plans to ensure all children who need an appropriate school would get one in time for September, the NCSE said it was working with local schools to determine the number of additional classes required.

“The NCSE relies on schools agreeing to open special classes; NCSE cannot oblige schools to do so. However, we generally find that schools do open sufficient special classes to meet demand and we are very grateful to schools that respond to our requests to establish special classes to meet local need.”

A key source of frustration for families and campaigners is what they see as a lack of forward planning on the part of education authorities.

Áine Hyland, professor emeritus of education at UCC, says the shortage of special class places at second level, in particular, is “entirely predictable”.

She was involved in a campaign group in south Dublin which warned five years ago that there were at least 120 children with special needs who were then receiving support in a primary school for whom there was no post-primary place.

“Our lobbying was effectively ignored… apart from one special autism class for six students provided in 2018, no planning was made for the identified needs of the pupils in question. Hence we now have a ‘crisis’ which was avoidable if the NCSE and the department had listened to the voices of parents five years ago.”

Education isn’t a luxury or a privilege; it’s a constitutionally-enshrined right

—  Gareth Noble, a solicitor who specialises in children’s rights

The NCSE insists it has enhanced its long-term forecasting models in recent years. It says this has allowed for a more streamlined process of establishing special education places, resulting in more than 2,000 special classes nationally for 12,700 pupils.

“While we are aware of the scale of the demand, and very much aware of the localised pressures, it is welcome that we have been able to make these advances in provision,” it said in a statement.

The reality, say campaigners, is that children are continuing to slip through the cracks. This is despite the fact that there is a constitutional right to education. Article 42.2 of the Constitution obliges the State to provide for free primary education for all children – regardless of their level of disability – in as full and as positive a manner as for all other children.

“Education isn’t a luxury or a privilege; it’s a constitutionally-enshrined right,” says Gareth Noble, a solicitor who specialises in children’s rights. “That means the Government cannot breach a constitutional right by saying, ‘we’re not putting resources into that area’.”

So, if resources are not necessarily the problem, how can the crisis be solved?

Nobel argues that emergency legislation may now be needed to compel schools to open special classes next September. Existing powers available to the Minister – known as section 37a – are too slow and bureaucratic and could take a year or more to bear fruit.

A coalition of disability advocacy groups – including AsIAm – wrote to the Minister over the weekend seeking such emergency legislation to avert a crisis in September.

More widely, Harris says a fundamental change in culture is needed to ensure children’s rights are vindicated.

He says a “deeply rooted charity-based approach” to the education of autistic children is at the root of the current problems.

“We are almost expected to be grateful when schools and the department provide what is the very least our children are entitled to. When an autistic child gets an appropriate school place, they are simply receiving what every other child in the country takes for granted.”

Changing this, he says, means fully implementing the required support mechanisms for children with special needs.

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (2004), or Epsen Act, for example, provided that children with special educational needs would be educated in an inclusive environment with full access to relevant supports. Eighteen years later, it has still not fully started.

The organisation’s survey results, he says, also show that families feel the NCSE is not effectively engaging with children across the country.

“We need a much more child-centred approach from the agency moving forward. It has to be about supporting and engaging with people, not distant bureaucracy,” he says.

“We recognise that the new NCSE chief executive John Kearney wants to bring about this change and we had a positive engagement with him earlier this week. We look forward to working together to ensure that this situation is simply not permitted to take place next year.”

We’re not asking for miracles – just a right to appropriate education

—  Ciara Jones

Ciara Jones, meanwhile, is still waiting for news of a school place for Gavin.

She says there have been promises that children in need of appropriate school placements in the Dublin 15 area will have their needs met, but has not received any word from education authorities.

It feels crushing, she says, because Gavin loves school and has lots of potential if he gets the right support.

“You know, for a child who can’t express or verbalise his needs, he tries to be the best he can be; he’s a friend to everyone. We don’t know what the future holds. I just hope he gets a chance to have an education in his community, with a teacher and a special needs assistant to help him through.

“The reality is children like Gavin are being forgotten about. There was no planning to ensure these children get an education which meets their needs. It’s shameful. We’re not asking for miracles – just a right to appropriate education.”