Ms S?le Parsons:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak today. I represent the Autism School Dublin 15. We are a group of parents and professionals who have worked together for over five years to secure the provision of appropriate autism-specific education in Dublin 15 and nationally. When we began, we focused on the lack of special school places in our area. Now, we are fighting for appropriate education for every autistic child. True, inclusive special education is the provision of an appropriate education in an appropriate setting with fully trained staff. The hope of any parent is for their child to reach their full potential. This has been forgotten when it comes to the education of autistic children in Ireland. It is not child centred. How could it be, when every teacher is trained as an afterthought, every special needs assistant, SNA, is hard fought-for and every special school is without therapists or appropriate buildings?

Currently, for example, a request for an SNA support is submitted to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. The special educational needs organisers, SENOs, do a full-school assessment of the number of SNAs already in the school for children with special education needs. This request is approved or denied based on the existing allocation within the school. How does this ensure the individual needs of a child are provided for? They are not providing the resources an individual child requires in school. They are playing a numbers game. The special education review committee, SERC, established the recommendation of two SNAs and one teacher per six special education needs children in 1993, 30 long years ago. The National Council for Special Education used these 30-year-old ratios as its guideline. It is only after an exceptional review that additional support is even considered. One child's assistance requirement should not be valued against another child's additional needs. We know of students at secondary school level who have an interest in learning home economics but, due to their SNA allocation being shared among multiple students, they must do woodwork instead, as their SNA is only available for that timetabled subject.

Another example is Danu Community Special School, a new special school for children with complex needs. It had 15 students with professional recommendations of one-to-one SNA support or, in some cases, two SNA supports for one student. Because the ratios of SNAs to students are the same in a special school as the 30-year-old ratios in a special class, at two SNAs per six students, after applying to the NCSE, the school was awarded a total of three additional SNAs to be shared between those 15 students. That is three, not the minimum of 15 SNAs required to ensure the safety and success of these students' school placements as outlined by their educational psychologist. A child's need for SNA support should not be up for negotiation. It should be granted without delay.

Training for a new teacher in a primary school special class is offered after the start of the school year, often in October or November. Training for any other job or profession happens well before you commence working. Additional training should also be provided after three and six months, but the initial training of understanding the fundamental teaching methods of special education needs to be done before the child is in the classroom. This will not only improve the experience for the child but also for the teacher. Nobody is handed the keys of a car and legally allowed to drive without learning the rules of the road first.

At secondary level, it is even worse. A teacher is expected to be able to teach autistic children with zero training, zero experience or zero understanding of the needs of the children they are trying to teach. A special education co-ordinator is appointed to a new special class and they receive the training, but only them. They are then expected to know it all, and after doing their training, it is assumed the whole school staff is now trained, book closed. Who is responsible for ensuring each child is receiving an appropriate education? Why are children leaving school after 14 years with only a school self-assessed leaving certificate? Where else would this be acceptable? Where is the inspectorate to ensure children are learning and progressing? Where is the assessment of the education programmes for students? Where is the review of what additional training is needed for staff? Where is the legal obligation for an individualised education programme, IEP? Special education is ever changing, improving in techniques, technologies and even additional diagnosis. Two or four weeks of retrospective training is pathetically inadequate.

Until three years ago, one cohort of children was continually being let down by the system. These children with complex needs required a special school to cater for their needs and provide them with the best education. They were left to languish on the home tuition grant, as the current system simply did not recognise their existence. It was not the NCSE or the Department of Education that identified this missing need; it was parents campaigning for these children's rights. After 15 years without sanctioning a single special school, the Department has sanctioned four new schools in three years. Dublin 15 special school, Danu, is already at capacity. No special school places are available for the next three years for children of primary or secondary school age in Dublin 15. When places become available, it will only be for one or two students each year. Our figures, compiled with the help of primary school principals, state clearly that, on average, over the next three years, Danu will need places for nine secondary school students each year. That does not include the requirement for a special school at primary level.

Although Dublin 15 has a special school, which was hard fought-for, the lack of future planning has resulted in a situation in which, after just three years, there are again no special school places. The home tuition grant or bussing to other areas are again being offered as solutions to these children. Where is the planning? We cannot have a repeat of last year, when 22 children were still without a secondary school place in Dublin 15 in June. These children have been in the primary school system for eight years. They are not invisible.

It is time for the provision of special education in Ireland to be child centred and to ensure every level of special requirement is catered for fully throughout the full education system - preschool, primary, secondary and higher education. For far too long, we have been drifting from crisis to crisis, from one end of the year to the other. One cohort of children is being failed by the system and the system is firefighting to resolve that issue just in time for a new cohort of children to be failed, when the firefighting begins again. It is time to stop this vicious cycle, this form of State-sponsored torture for parents of autistic children.

The legislators gathered in this Chamber have the power to change this. We all know there is no quick fix, but comprehensive training of every person within education would be a start, from the Minister herself across the system to even caretakers of schools. Understanding autism is a fundamental start, as is providing the requested allocation of SNA support per child, as required, with no delay, red tape or requirements for principals to prove the need over the coming months to the special educational needs organisers, SENOs, while the child is suffering and the school placement is breaking down. There should be no more firefighting. It is time for Government and all State bodies to be proactive, not reactive. It is time to cherish all children of the nation equally.