How one principal copes
Since welcoming children with special needs into his primary school in Craughwell, Co Galway, Mr Pat Kelly finds that most of his time is taken up with bureaucracy as he fights to get the resources these children need.
"Since September, disabilities have taken up more of my time than any other area," says the school principal.
"It is demeaning that when a principal sends the requisite assessments and forms to the Department, that a parent must still approach the Department to get their rights to education for their children. It degrades the principal in the eyes of the parent and degrades the parent, who should not have to go on bended knee," he says.
By his own account, Mr Kelly has spent hours hanging on the end of the phone, trying to reach the Department of Education and Science.
"When you do get through, all you tend get is a recording asking you to leave a message," he said. No Department official from the special needs unit has visited the school to see how the special needs children or their teachers are getting on, although the local inspector has visited and shown concern, he said.
Such frustration at the lack of support is common among principals, and has led to the INTO's call for increased staffing in the special education unit of the Department.
Every branch of a Department, as well as outside agencies, requires photocopies of original psychological reports. Mr Kelly photocopied one report 17 times, he says.
"The Government has passed legislation, like the Education Act 2000, without putting any systems into place," he says.
Recently, Craughwell National School lost a valued, trained special needs assistant because the Department of Education could not confirm her employment until the weekend before school started.
All special needs staff currently in the school are in limbo because they do not know if they are to be made permanent until the results of the Department's ongoing audit.
"And nobody knows when the audit will be concluded," Mr Kelly said.
"The way the Department is treating these poor little kids and their parents is abysmal," he said.