Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The system for allocating special education teachers is crude, it is not fit for purpose, and it is letting down our children with special needs.

This fact was underlined for me this week by the principal of Rathmichael National School in my area. It has just lost a special education teacher because of the crude way in which the allocations are made. The school is appealing the decision, and I hope the Minister will consider that appeal. The principal pointed out that the figures are crudely based on the number of children coming in with a diagnosis in junior infants and those leaving in sixth class. What is not taken into account is that many children identified as having special needs are not identified until later. Often, the school must help with that being done and with the children going through the system. The assessments can take up to two years.

Something I did not know is that some parents, because of the long waiting lists, then get private assessments but, incredibly, those private assessments are not counted in the HSE's figures because the two systems do not join up. That seems crazy. The same principal pointed out that children with slightly less severe but nonetheless special needs are ignored, essentially, because they do not have assistance and are not identified. This issue must be addressed. We need a system for allocating special education teachers and support that is based on the real needs of the children and not on crude calculations.

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