Emergency legislation aims to deliver school places for 100 children with special needs

The Government has said emergency legislation to be enacted shortly aims to ensure there will be school places for more than 100 children with special educational needs for the coming school year.

However, Ministers were unable to guarantee that all children who require an appropriate school place which meet their assessed needs would have one in time for September.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Education (Provision in Respect of Children with Special Educational Needs) Bill 2022, which aims to compel schools to open special classes within six to eight weeks. The existing process can take up to 18 months.

Minister of State for special education Josepha Madigan described the announcement as a “milestone day” for children with special educational needs.

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“I think it will offer them hope. As we know for many decades, children with additional needs have, to my mind, been neglected ... This will go an awful long way to demonstrate our support for them and the fact that we are on their side.”

When asked if she could guarantee that children who needed an appropriate school place would get one, she said: “That’s absolutely what we are endeavouring to do. As politicians, I think it’s a very dangerous thing to make guarantees about anything. We’re absolutely using our full resources in order to achieve that.”

The National Council for Special Education (NCS) has advised that just under 50 children in the Dublin region remain without a special school place for the coming year. In addition, 56 children in the Dublin region remain without a special class place in a mainstream primary school for the coming year.

Ministers hope more special class places can delivered on foot of engagement with 14 primary schools in the capital.

The council has advised that there is “an adequate supply of special class and special school places” throughout the remainder of the country.

Campaigners, however, argue that many more children who require appropriate school places are not included in official statistics, including those in inappropriate settings or who are forced to travel long distances outside their communities.

Ms Madigan sparked anger in four Dublin primary schools at the weekend when she claimed they were “not engaging at all” with officials over plans to create more spaces and had “ignored” correspondence. The schools in question said this was not true and they had facilitated site visits and other engagement with officials.

Defending her comments on Tuesday, Ms Madigan said the schools were “ignoring the import of the correspondence”, and the NCSE had assured her there was “insufficient engagement from the schools” and there would not be collaboration around opening special classes.

“If that continues, they will be compelled to open further special class places ... that will apply to other schools nationwide,” she said.

Minister for Education Norma Foley said use of the new legislation would be a last resort.

“The department and the NCSE will continue to engage intensely with school authorities to open new special classes for September, but I am confident that this legislation can also play a key role in helping us with those efforts,” she said.

Further engagement is happening with schools, which Ms Foley said would continue “intensively” in the coming weeks, with the intention of further reducing the number of children requiring a special class placement.

In relation to the 50 children who require a special school placement, she said authorities were working to ensure additional special school provision would be made available across Dublin.