Ms Breda Corr:

I have been here before so there is no need to go through introductions. Of the 200 schools represented by the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education, NABMSE, 40% are mainstream primary and post-primary schools with special classes. In preparation for this submission, we surveyed our members and referred to a consultation we had with them last year. At the heart of this submission are the best interests and education of the pupil and student. We welcome the recent publication of the comprehensive review of the special needs assistant scheme, where a new school inclusion model looks at providing the right supports at the right time to students with additional care needs. If this model is rolled out following a pilot, it will go some way to resolving the issues being identified by schools.

There have been other recent developments which we also welcome, including the report of the working group on nursing supports for special schools and the progress of the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill. There will be some issues with the regulations but we will address those at a later stage. As Ms Dempsey also indicated, while the focus of the committee's invitation for today's meeting seemed to be on the provision of ASD classes in mainstream schools, we must recognise that other classes may need to be set up in mainstream schools depending on needs identified locally. I identified eight issues but I will not go through each of them in detail.

They include planning for and setting up classes, training and information, clinical supports, resources, inclusion and transition planning, which is extremely important, curriculum, which is now in place, recruitment and staffing, and review of placement. On planning, I just checked with the NCSE and there are 1,057 classes at primary level and 397 at post-primary level. That speaks for itself. Schools should be given time to plan for the proper provision of these classes, including staff training, thus ensuring that the students are provided with an appropriate education. Planning for post-primary and the transitions should be done much earlier. The identification of the locations of special classes should form part of the forward planning brief of the Department of Education and Skills, which it is not at present, in the same way that schools are identified for towns.

On training and information, I will not labour the point previous speakers have made about training, but there are significant ongoing training needs. I am hoping the report will go some way towards that. There has to be whole-school training. I would love if the NCSE set out a programme of training for all schools that are setting up a special class, both before and after, so the school is not left to itself. There would be a specific training pathway. Schools should visit other schools that are models of good practice. I know a few of them and if anybody wishes to visit them, we will bring them to them. Training and placement in special education settings should be encouraged in all areas of initial teacher education. We are working with a specific college that is very keen to do this for post-primary. That is very important.

We all know what the clinical supports are, and I welcome the recently announced pilot. This will give a continuum of support, but there is a need for more therapists in the community. My fear is that there are not enough therapists being trained in the country. Incidentally, I had a discussion with Deputy Thomas Byrne previously about psychology. With regard to the set-up and resources, there are certain training costs that need to be renewed every two years. I told the committee previously that this is funded out of fundraising or capitation. That should not be done. We get an enhanced capitation grant and there is a little more for post-primaries as well, but that has been reduced over the years. A very strong recommendation is that we must examine the capitation overall but certainly in special education settings because the costs are higher. There is grant aid but perhaps it is time to review it to see if it is enough.

With regard to inclusion and transition planning, if a pupil is attending a special class in a mainstream setting, it should be the aim of the school to include the pupil in as many mainstream class activities as possible. This should lead to the full inclusion eventually. It might not happen but it should be attempted. However, the school requires resources. The NCSE has a fantastic publication, the "Inclusive Education Framework". That must be rolled out again. There are some other areas around transition but there should be a very definite plan or strategy on inclusion from the Government whereby all areas of the Government are working together.

Some of the good news is that there are some good new developments in the curriculum at post-primary level. Sometimes, however, we tend to forget about special education when reviewing things, such as literacy and numeracy, but junior cycle level two and junior cycle level one will be very good for pupils with special education needs. There are ten post-primary schools and two special schools involved in the review of the senior cycle, so that will be very good.

I will not go through the recruitment and staffing. Some schools have suggested that there should be more than one special class set up. That would get away from the isolation and would give support. All teachers in the schools should be included when allocating principal release days. Somebody will probably ask me what that means. All teachers should also be included when management resources posts are set up. Finally, schools that set up special classes want to provide the best resources in education for pupils and are very disappointed when it does not work out for the pupil. Any review should not be taken lightly, but they should be supported in that. If it is not the right place for the child, that must be reviewed for the child, not for the school.