James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be sharing time with Deputy Scanlon. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this issue of special needs access to school places, and on the issue of reduced timetables. Every child deserves an appropriate school placement within their community, and this includes children with special needs. All children are equal. Some children learn differently and require teachers who understand them. They require those teachers to have the necessary supports and need more environments that are friendly to their needs. Children with autism, for example, need sensory friendly environments and sometimes they need visual aids. These children equally need an appropriate school placement within their community, and this is true integration and true inclusion.

Every year, however, parents of children with special needs and autism face considerable difficulties securing school places for their children in mainstream schools or special schools. Some children over the age of six still have no place, and six of those children are in my county of Wexford. We are aware of more than 850 children with special needs in the State who received home tuition last year because a space could not be found for them in schools. Similarly, many schools have implemented involuntary exclusions or reduced timetables for children with special needs.

These children and their families are being left behind. I have dealt with numerous children and their families through my constituency office in Enniscorthy. Children are being denied their right to appropriate education, which is discrimination. There is a real underprovision of places. Children who have been diagnosed as requiring places in special classes or special schools are being told there are no places available in their area, and some of the children must travel up to 60 km to access a place. The gap in special needs provision leads to a two tier educational system.

Similarly, it appears that the practice of reduced timetables is a growing problem. The practice appears largely unregulated. There are no guidelines around its usage and there is no requirement for schools to report on the practice. Department inspectors do not collect widespread data on it. This means that children who need intervention cannot get it because the data are not available to identify where they are. Children end up underperforming, leaving school early and not meeting their potential.

The Government must act to ensure these children receive the education they are entitled to. Schools must be provided with the resources to vindicate these children's rights to an education. Schools that are not going to play ball - effectively, those schools that feel they do not have to provide the necessary supports - should have action taken against them. The Education (Admission to Schools ) Act 2018 gives the Minister for Education and Skills the power to compel schools to provide the necessary spaces for these special children and it should be used.

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