Ms Rachel O'Connor:

I would agree that transition from primary to post-primary is crucial and it needs to begin as early as possible. For example, with that child who was coming in to us, we knew about it from third class but the system would not accommodate anything other than us getting to know the child, etc. In terms of his physical and primary care needs, we had nothing. In a building that was only 45 years old, we had nothing. Earlier intervention will benefit children and put the parents at ease. Now that child is going home to a situation where everybody is more comfortable knowing that this is what is ahead.

It is important to remember that, just because a parent might be lucky enough to be part of a feeder system into a school where there just so happens to be an ASD place available, it does not mean the special class is a magic tick-the-box answer. When one meets a child with autism, one meets a child with autism. In 2016, Dr. Selina McCoy of the ESRI did a huge piece of research for the NCSE on the impact of special educational classes on the children who get places and whether we were creating parallel systems. Are we creating a system where we have exclusion within mainstream, with students being syphoned off into special classes due to lack of resources and lack of accommodation? Schools being lucky enough to get modular buildings that are three fields away is not inclusion. It is exclusion. There is a lack of expertise, ongoing training, etc. There is a bigger picture that needs to be looked at but the journey needs to begin much sooner than when a child comes to visit me in sixth class for open night. I need to be able to guarantee that place for that child in two or three years' time so that we can start that journey and, as has been said repeatedly, put in place forward planning to ensure a smooth transition.