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

Monkstown Educate Together National School has lost a whole special education teacher for next year. This is happening all over the place because of this new model of allocation of special education resources and the removal of complex needs as a criterion. It needs to be addressed. When speaking to school communities affected by this, they make a simple point - the Department should trust the schools to tell it what they need. In Monkstown Educate Together National School, the same kids are there and they have the same needs but because of this new algorithm, which has removed complex needs, the school is down a special education teacher. In Sallynoggin Educate Together National School, there is another example of the anomalies. The school has two autism classes, wants to open two more and is in a position to do so, but is being told by the Department of Education that it will not get them until it gets its permanent building.

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