Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When we speak about special educational needs, we know early intervention is critical to the success of any work done with young children. Due to the appalling waiting times that parents experience for a crucial assessment of needs, pupils tend to fall behind, feel excluded and, in some cases, be confined to reduced timetables. It appears the use of reduced timetables is a growing problem, although this practice appears to vary across the country. Some principal teachers opt to impose a reduced timetable as a response to a child's challenging behaviour when there is a lack of available learning supports for the student and others must use it as a disciplinary method. We know this happens throughout the country.

A survey conducted by AsIAm indicates that half of parents of children with autism have been waiting for more than a year for a suitable school place and that hundreds of children are being excluded from school altogether. This online survey, which received 300 responses, indicates that a third of parents have been waiting one or two years for a school place, with one in ten waiting between two and three years and 7% of parents waiting for more than three years for a suitable place. The practice of reduced timetables appears to be largely unregulated and there are no guidelines. There is no requirement for schools to report on the practice and the Department's inspectors do not collect widespread data on it. This means the real scale of the use of reduced timetables is unknown. In some cases, parents have withdrawn their children from a school in the absence of appropriate supports. Some children are on partial school days and have even been advised to seek home tuition instead. Others have been suspended or expelled from school. We all know of such cases in our constituencies. These children are invisible, and for the most part, as they do not show up on official statistics, they are being left out of the education system. Children end up underperforming, leaving school early and not coming close to reaching their potential. They are, effectively, left behind. Teachers end up teaching pupils of different academic status with no cohesion whatever.

The fact there are no data available on the practice of reduced timetables is particularly worrying. Nobody is monitoring the issue and therefore there are no targeted resources or interventions. I listened attentively to the Minister of State talking about the HSE's intervention in the critical assessment of need. He mentioned speech and language and occupational therapy, as well as physiotherapy. We meet parents in our offices and clinics on a daily basis who are exasperated and frustrated about this. In some cases they are in trouble with the school authorities. The school may not be able to cope because of a lack of support and the parents get into trouble because children do not meet the designated number of days on which they must attend school. It comes down to the important assessment of need and not having the required interventions in place.

I disagree with much of what the Minister of State said towards the end of his contribution when he argued the HSE is rolling out sufficient schemes to provide speech and language therapy. That is not my experience on the ground and my feelings are probably echoed by a number of my colleagues across the House. These children are not getting the interventions and they are being left behind. Parents are struggling to either get these children to school or keep them there because these crucial supports are missing. We speak about autism and learning difficulties but needs are not being met.

This is an opportunity to commend the work of special needs assistants, SNAs, throughout the country. They work tirelessly and are completely committed to the very special work they do. They are poorly treated in terms of job security and permanent contracts; they do not have these and can only aspire to getting them. It is very difficult for them and they suggest they are undervalued and do not have sufficient job security. There is a problem because qualified SNAs cannot get contracts or jobs despite feeling very passionate about the work they do. Those people are worth their weight in gold in communities as not everybody can do the job. Those who go for that training deserve the support and recognition in the form of proper contracts for a very specialised job in the education system.

I highlight the work of the Holy Family school at Cootehill, County Cavan, which is an exemplary model of a school dealing with special education. It has had to do its work against a backdrop of very poor resourcing until now. It is fortunate as it will get a new school building but it is an exemplary model of special education delivery that anywhere in the country could look to. Bailieborough community school is another secondary school that has provided an autism spectrum disorder unit relatively recently and at least it allows those students to feel part of the mainstream community comprising their friends and siblings. I ask that the Government try to replicate that model of special education across the country.

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