Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan raised some of my points. There does not appear to be any disagreement regarding the collection of data in this area. It is about how we do it. We do not have a clear pattern of how it is being used because we cannot record it. What are the interventions that happened before the point of last resort? What did they look like for the child, the family? Were they specific to an individual child or was there a blanket approach? We are doing ourselves a disservice by not having information about, and knowledge of, what had been put in place up until that point. Other schools may have been implementing different types of interventions which have worked. Without being able to collect that information we are not going to be able to look at other practices or schools that do not have reduced timetables. A child should never miss out on school but in cases of disability and special education, there may be medical reasons and different interventions from special educational needs assistants, SENOs. A huge number of parents said they had no interaction with their SENOs. What work is the SENO doing in the context of collecting the information relating to the families they support?

I am at a loss as to why there are no historical data on Traveller children or children from different socio-economic backgrounds in the context of special educational needs or long-term supports in school. I wonder what the data on Traveller children would look like. They are a particular cohort where special needs cut across every school. I know of one kid in Tallaght who was given an iPad in school every morning and he sat in the classroom on his iPad. There was a low expectation and an acceptance that the child might not continue, maybe because his siblings had not continued. That was at primary level but I also know of a girl at secondary level whose teachers did not invest in her as she prepared for junior certificate because she was going to be married when she turned 16. They assumed that one thing negated the other in this case, rather than accepting that she wanted to do her junior certificate and continue with her education.

How do we resource special education so as not to have reduced timetables and so that buildings are adequate and special assistants are in place? What about the cohorts for whom we do not even have a medical background or a sociological analysis of why reduced timetables are being used? We need to collect data on all schools for why reduced timetables are being used. Teachers have to be accountable by showing what they have put in place, following which we would be able to see what is working and what is not. I do not assume that teachers have not tried other methods but I wonder if they tried them in isolation or before they worked with the wider services. Research by AsIAm found that some parents had no interaction with their school in giving consent. Reduced timetables were as a result of the beginning of disciplinary procedures, and not just because of medical or other reasons. This ties into the code of behaviour but also into questions of how we manage difficult behaviour, especially for children who have experienced huge trauma in their communities before they even enter the classroom. We need to adapt teaching to deal with this because teaching can look a little different in those communities. I left school very young and a reduced timetable was forced on me but I was at home doing drugs. That was not the best thing for me and the school might have sat down with me and learned that I was really stressed and frustrated. Do we try to do what is best for the student in the long term and when he or she re-enters the community? Something might seem to be the best thing for a student in a certain situation but it might not be the best alternative.

We need to be able to give mechanisms to schools to show them what is and is not being done and what the outcomes are. What are the steps to be taken, the outcomes and the follow-ups for children who have re-entered school? It is only when we have the necessary knowledge that we will see the patterns and the solutions.