SPECIAL NEEDS:SCHOOLS THAT cherry pick students and that do not take their fair share of students with special educational needs should be penalised by the Department of Education and Science, according to the State's largest second-level teachers' union, the ASTI.
As Minister for Education Mary Hanafin yesterday announced plans to consult schools following an unpublished audit by the department of enrolment policies in some 1,900 primary and secondary schools, delegates at the ASTI's annual conference overwhelmingly supported a motion aimed at addressing the issue.
Delegates affirmed the principle that all schools should have in place policies that "actively support" equality of access.
A two-part motion said this would ensure all schools catered for special educational needs of students in their catchment area. Similarly, this would ensure that the practice of schools "cherry picking" their intake would cease.
"The ASTI calls on the department to audit the intake of students with special educational needs and either to accord incentives to those schools who are educating these students, and/or put in place a penalty system for those schools who are effectively discouraging the enrolment of these students," the motion continued.
Proposing the motion, Elizabeth Crummey, a member of the union's executive for Stillorgan, urged all those present to ensure that "all parents and students may have the equality of opportunity and the choices they deserve".
"We have all experienced 'the high-flying school in the area' which excludes these students, either through examination or interview. Parents are given the distinct feeling that their son or daughter with special needs will not fit in.
"The schools who do embrace these students wholeheartedly become victims of their own success and therefore have large numbers of students with special educational needs for whom they do not have adequate resources."
Former ASTI president Susie Hall, who teaches in Malahide Community School in Dublin, said the school was proud to have more than 100 students with special needs enrolled there.
However, she also highlighted the "bureaucratic nightmare" that schools faced trying to cater to their needs. She called for every school to be given an allocation of supports, with students then following this allocation.