Ms Derval McDonagh:

I will touch on the issues of distance and children travelling to exercise their right to education, and Ms Byrne will then come in on the post-school options and guidance in school. With regard to Deputy Tully’s point about children having to travel a long distance to go to school, that is absolutely what is happening for children across the country right now. We know of many families who are in contact with us regularly at Inclusion Ireland to tell us their child is travelling for an hour and a half every day in a taxi and going past ten or 20 local schools to exercise their right to education. When we talk about all children having the right to go to their local school, it is about what is happening in families every morning when they are preparing to go out the front door. I spoke to a mother last week who has three children, two of whom do not happen to have a disability while her third child is disabled. In the morning, they are making their lunches together and getting ready to go out the door, and her first and second children get to turn right, walk down through the estate with their friends and go to the local school, and her third child gets into a taxi and travels for an hour and a half across the city. What does that say to children about where they belong in their communities if we cannot imagine a time when that child gets to go to school with their siblings?

When we talk about school inclusion, that is what we are talking about. We are talking about the right of all children to be educated together and go to their local school. We know that is complex and complicated, and that it will take time and resources going in the right ways. Dr. Banks touched on the critical point of leadership at the local school level but I think this also takes leadership from the Government in talking about why it is important for all children in our communities to be educated together. This is absolutely a hallmark of education at the moment and it is causing a lot of damage to children to have to travel that distance in any way, shape or form.

I also want to address the school inclusion model, which was brought up in the opening questions. I do not think there is a school in the country that would say it would not like to have a therapist on-site, working alongside the teachers, educators and special needs assistants. As an alliance, we would love to see this moving on from the pilot model, and I think we have piloted the school inclusion model to within an inch of its life. We understand the value that it brings and there is an evaluation process around that at the moment. We would love to see that going system-wide. In terms of the value it brings to schools, the old school version of therapy was going into a school and taking a child out of the classroom to bring them off to a room to have speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. This is much more about embedding inclusive practices within the school, with the therapist working alongside the teachers, the educators and the special needs assistants to look at how a child can access the curriculum, and really focusing on the access and accommodation requirements that a child needs in order to have a high-quality educational experience. The more that we can build those supports into inclusive schools, the better.

Ms Byrne might wish to speak to the piece about getting guidance when leaving school and going to college.