Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Burton for raising this important issue for discussion. As she knows, I have great respect for her. I hope that I will bring some clarity to the issue, which has been the subject of much commentary in recent weeks.

Yesterday, I announced that I had paused a decision on this matter so that further consultation with parents could occur. This means that, for now at least, the over-age exemption will continue to be available. I hope that my decision will bring the parents concerned some relief. I encourage them to ensure that their views are represented in the consultation that will occur over the coming months, the details of which I will publish shortly. I would appreciate receiving direct representations from parents.

It is important that I set out the rationale for the original decision. The recent announcement of changes was designed to support the achievement of better outcomes for children with disabilities. The evidence is that children with a disability should start school with their peers once they have access to high-quality and inclusive primary school education. The evidence is also that they should become teenagers with their peers and transition to secondary school with them.

Over-age exemptions were introduced at the outset of the ECCE programme in 2010. At that time, the programme only operated for one programme year of 38 weeks. For some children with special or additional needs, attending preschool five days per week was not feasible. For this reason, an allowance was made to enable them to split ECCE over two years. An example of this is a child who may have availed of three days ECCE provision per week in year one and two days per week in year two. The child's total ECCE provision remained at 38 weeks.

In order to facilitate this, and in cases where the child would have been over the age limit for ECCE, which is five years and six months when finishing ECCE, an over-age exemption was approved. This flexibility was never intended to conflict with the legislative requirement to start school by six years of age. Children should be in school by the time they are six. The primary school system has a variety of resources to support children with disabilities. If children are not in school by six years of age, under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, Tusla must be satisfied that the child is receiving a minimum standard of education in a place other than a recognised school. It does this by sending educational welfare inspectors out to the place of the child's education. This would be in addition to the early years inspectorate funded by my Department.

Since ECCE was first introduced, my Department has worked to improve the preschool experience for children with disabilities and to optimise their early development. The two main enhancements are an ECCE entitlement that will expand further to 76 weeks from September 2018 and the introduction of the access and inclusion model, AIM.

In the best interests of children, and for no other reason, a proposal was considered to remove the over-age exemption to the upper age limit of the programme. This was signalled last year but, in order to give longer notice, the planned introduction was delayed until September 2018. The original decision to remove the over-age exemption was made with the Department of Education and Skills. It was also done in close collaboration with members of the AIM cross-sectoral implementation group, including representatives from the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, the National Disability Authority and the HSE, representatives of parents of children with special needs and a representative of early years providers.

There was broad agreement that, in light of the developments in free preschool education and the supports in place for children in primary schools, the over-age exemption would no longer support the policy aim that children should transition to primary school with their peers. The decision acknowledged the supports provided by the relevant primary school, the NCSE and other bodies, as required. However, I am also conscious of the need to listen further to those with concerns. To this end, I intend to pause the proposed change and consult more widely with parents of children with disabilities and special needs.

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