Ms Anne-Marie Ford:

Good afternoon. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I am here with Dr. Aoiveen Mathews, who is a parent in Tullydonnell school. As to my background, I am the principal of the school. We have four early intervention classes for children with a diagnosis of autism. Autism is an area in which I have become very interested in recent years, along with doing my teaching. I have qualified with an MSc in neuroscience and psychology of mental health, and I studied especially the area of autism and the neurology of the brain of the child with autism. I am about to complete psychoanalytic psychotherapy, with my area of interest again being on the whole autism piece and looking at the individual child and therapies around that for children with a diagnosis of autism.

The Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Josepha Madigan, in 2022 announced a review involving public consultation on the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. Our parent-teacher group was formed to raise awareness of this review and to encourage submissions and active participation by parents, children and teachers, all in the context of members of our group having recent experience of the workings and practices under the existing legislation. In addition, arising from this experience, we seek to bring focus and critical attention to how children with and without additional needs are being very badly served and supported and, in some cases, are being emotionally damaged while having their learning impaired as a result of wholly inadequate support being provided in the classroom. From the outset, we remind all members of this committee that research has shown that the earlier the intervention for children with additional needs, the better the prognosis for future development leading to realising their full potential and integration into wider society.

Our school is a rural primary school with approximately 175 children and four early intervention classes for three- to five-year old children with a diagnosis of autism. Our collective experience of how supports have served children with additional needs when applied in practice has been very disappointing, resulting in a loss of opportunity for the individual child to integrate and realise their potential in a mainstream school.

In September 2021, three children with a diagnosis of autism enrolled in the junior infants class in this rural school. These three children had previously attended the early intervention classes and, up to the point of enrolment in the junior infants class, all the evidence confirmed the strategies, interventions and supports had all been very successful. We collectively had naïvely assumed that because the support had been provided for the early intervention process, these children would continue to be so supported as they commenced their journey in mainstream education. Regrettably and shamefully, this did not happen. They were denied the identified and appropriate targeted support required for intervention into mainstream education.

The school challenged this flawed decision both through the exceptional review process and subsequently through the appeals process. We were told in a somewhat dismissive fashion that we would have to redistribute our existing resources and that we could have a seminar to show us how this could be done. The net effect of this denial of essential support was that the school had to divert already scarce resources from children currently receiving support to give them to the three students enrolling in junior infants. One of the many consequences of this was that one student with significant medical needs had to do without any support for a full school year in order to provide necessary supports for the three new students to commence their mainstream education. Redistribution can, therefore, be translated into one or more students having to do without supports to which they are entitled and which enable them to integrate effectively.

Arising from this episode of very negative practice, a parents action group was formed and protests were organised outside the Dáil, with extensive engagement with public representatives, including the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. Finally, just prior to a planned protest outside the constituency office of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, the Department of Education commenced discussions with the group. This led to a delegation of five Department of Education officials from the NCSE, NEPS and the inspectorate coming to the school to interview staff, parents and pupils.

This delegation spent a total of four days in the school. Over the course of these four days, the parents, staff and pupils in the school shared very personal and intimate details of the children's needs, difficulties and experiences, both at home and in the school environment. In essence the parents were left begging, appealing for the support that their children so badly needed and, as citizens, were absolutely entitled to. The whole process and exercise was distressing, upsetting, demeaning and insulting to parents and children who were already facing and striving to overcome so many challenges. In summary, their experience as a result of the Department's approach was inexcusable.

It is worth noting that on the final day of the delegation's visit, we were told that the school had been failed by the system. We, as a group, do not want to see any other children in any other school failed by the system in this country. We ask the committee to note, and this is critical, that the end result of this whole process, which effectively covered one school year, was that in September 2022 the school was given two additional special needs assistants and one additional learning support teacher. The question must be asked why the exceptional review and appeals processes found no additional resource was required when, in reality, significant additional support was belatedly sanctioned. It is very clear that the procedures, policies and processes established under current practices are seriously flawed, unduly bureaucratic and very protracted, while being injurious and insulting to the children and parents they are meant to help and support.

These shortcomings can be summarised as follows: fundamentally flawed exceptional review appeals processes; lack of teacher training in the whole area of children with additional needs; and absence of oversights in placements with autism spectrum classes, leading to inappropriate placement in these classes. I am quoting the chief inspector, Dr. Harold Hislop's report for the period 2016 to 2020.

His inspectorate has found that too many children are being placed in segregated ASD classes when they could, with the correct supports, easily be integrated into the mainstream. Those supports are not being put in place. This leads to a shortage of places for those children who actually need and would benefit from them. Parents are being pressured into accepting placements in ASD classes because there is no guarantee of the adequate provision of required supports in mainstream classes. A lack of multidisciplinary supports in clinics and schools is resulting in children not accessing essential supports in a timely manner, thereby creating a barrier to individual children realising their full potential. Mainstream classes continue to be too large to facilitate the needs of all students.

I will now address the changes required. It is our collective and informed view that, to ensure this country fully meets is obligations to ensure all children are treated equally, a number of changes are required. These begin with an amended and updated Act that places the individual child at the centre of every decision and provides that child with all the supports necessary to allow them to reach their full potential and ultimately contribute to the economy and the society in which they live. In addition to this legislation, further measures are also required. All teachers should attend a nationwide training programme to equip with them with a broader knowledge base and the skill set necessary to support children with additional needs. Amendments should be made to the existing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for teacher training to strengthen the knowledge base in this area. Supports should be provided for children transitioning from early intervention and commencement settings. These should follow the student as he or she integrates. This is necessary to allay the concerns of parents who currently feel pressured into enrolling children in autism spectrum classes even when they could thrive in a mainstream setting if provided with appropriate support.

Direct support should be provided in the form of multidisciplinary teams assigned to clusters of schools, following a similar model to that of NEPS. This would result in all schools having access to team members. Early intervention can take place there. That multidisciplinary team can come in early. Mental health issues can be easily addressed when such teams are in place. Early intervention is key. Human resources in schools should be improved. I refer to teaching assistants rather than SNAs. We need to look at the language we use when speaking about our children. This improvement would facilitate the full inclusion of children with additional needs while ensuring that all children have the optimum learning environment and experience. Teacher-pupil ratios should be improved to reflect European norms. This will ensure and facilitate the best learning experience for all students.

The review of the current legislation offers this country, and the members as legislators, the first opportunity in 19 years to address the shortcomings we have identified. We respectfully request that all members of this committee use their position as legislators to strengthen the legislation and ensure all policies, practices and processes are child-centred, child-focused and deliver the supports necessary to ensure the path to mainstream education is as easy as possible. This is a fundamental right for these children which, regrettably, is currently denied too often. In addition to this new legislation, every entity and professional working in the system must change focus so that the individual children have their needs met. This should determine all decisions. This will involve a cultural and system change that cannot be delayed any longer. I thank the members for their attention and for offering me the opportunity to talk here this afternoon.