Ms Mai Fanning:

The dedicated points of contact between the Department, schools and parents are vital for communication and getting the information across. As Mr.O'Connor from Inclusion Ireland noted earlier, there is a great deal of good information on the departmental websites. Nevertheless, getting that clearly translated and communicated to the whole school community may need to be worked on a little more. The area where things are falling down is in miscommunication to parents. Schools, within themselves, are working hard to communicate with the parental and student body. If, however, schools are not getting the information they require to clarify matters, they cannot pass it on.

There are some grey areas. I acknowledge that it is still early days for secondary schools because many of them have not yet fully kicked in. There have been sort of lead-in days for different classes and some of them will not kick in full time for another week or two. Grey areas have come up, however, and one of the main ones is that children who are classed as at risk because of a medical condition, but not at high risk, are in a dichotomy at the moment where they cannot go back to school because they are at risk. The information from the Department refers only to high-risk children. For such kids coming back to school, especially at second level, a remote-learning facility needs to be in place for them so that they will not be left behind.

They may not be a large majority, but they are still children in need of education and who have a right to education because of whatever disability they may have, be it medical, physical or anything else. Those children must be supported within the schools. If a school does not have the facility to provide remote learning for those children, such a facility must then be put in place, either through the school system or instigated by the Department, to help and cater for those kids. Most schools are using a holistic approach to look after the academic side and the mental well-being of students coming in.