Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

These are important statements on special education. In advance of this debate, I took the opportunity to ask schools and educational leaders in my community and other parts of Dublin about the circumstances of special education in their schools. While I will not refer to any school by name, I will speak to some of the issues they raised with me during those telephone conversations in the past few days.

One school pointed out to me with great frustration that earlier this year, following the furore regarding the special education allocation, the National Council for Special Education promised a circular would be sent out to address the countless concerns of parents, special needs assistants and special education teachers. The NCSE said the circular would be presented in a timely manner. However, there is absolutely no sign of that circular despite the end of the academic year quickly approaching, and this has added to the frustrations of school leaders. They highlighted that the front-loading model of SNA allocation is simply not fit for purpose. We know this; it has been raised in the House many times. That view has been accepted by the NCSE, which promised to change the model. In the absence of the circular, however, the provision of SNAs in September will remain wholly inadequate and the consequences of that will be felt by students who rely on that assistance.

Many schools needed more SNAs this year but did not receive a fair allocation. The countless schools that will need more SNAs next year will need to partake in a complex and lengthy process to apply for an exceptional needs review, the results of which will only be revealed in September, when it is simply too late. We understand the strains that are placed on school leaders ever single year. This year, like last year, the process will again be overly burdensome and overly complicated and result in school leaders having to close their door to do paperwork when they should be out providing for the needs of the students for whom they care. This process takes over a month. School principals are already hamstrung by the crippling level of understaffing and are struggling to tackle issues that are laborious in their undertaking. All of this means that students, particularly those making the jump from primary to secondary level, arrive in a new school setting which cannot provide the resources to support them in the pursuit of the education they deserve. It means that students arriving into secondary school with a complex need of any sort or a need for an SNA allocation do not get it upon arrival. Right from the start, their school journey begins with an absence. Everything that follows stems from that one failure at departmental level.

The allocation model does not reflect an increase in numbers in communities. It is simply broken. One of the last hopes to rectify that calamity was for the aforementioned circular to arrive in a timely manner, but it simply has not arrived. Special classes have been hit particularly hard by this lack of resourcing, which is next to being ignored by the NCSE. That sentiment came from a number of different school leaders to whom I spoke in recent days. They feel ignored. Calls are made and emails are sent but they are not being responded to. I think all Members have received emails from schools telling us how their new special class teacher has received no training after being told the course is full and there is nothing the NCSE can do about it. This leads to underqualified teaching, but certainly not the teachers, letting down our vulnerable students. Students are not getting the education they have been promised and which they simply deserve. I recently had a conversation with a young teacher who told me about the struggle she had in providing care to students without having been trained to do so. She spoke about the impact this has on the students, but also on her professionally. To go further, I would argue that a greater focus on special education during teacher training and study must be incorporated into university programmes. The current level of special education training which teachers receive is far below what many students in special classes require or what the teachers themselves are demanding. This must be rectified with urgency, though "urgency" is not a word I associate in any way with the Department.

A branch within the NCSE that has a particular focus on behaviour for learning has excluded a group of DEIS schools and this is causing significant issues. The allocation of a teacher for behaviour management will result in several students not making it through school. Many of them will leave when they are not provided with the support they require, while others will be asked to go elsewhere, but all will be failed. The NCSE is experiencing major changes that are not being managed properly. It is understaffed and is not in a position to support the young people who need it. It needs a major overhaul. This must be a priority for the Department because every day the NCSE stays broken, we are failing our most vulnerable students. A school has even initiated High Court proceedings after the NCSE refused to allocate additional SNAs the school direly needed. How did it get to a point where schools are initiating High Court proceedings to simply get SNAs? The current state of the NCSE is a stain on our education system.

At primary level, requiring an exceptional review every year for new junior infants who require support is simply unfathomable. This is a routine circumstance; not an exceptional one. The process is excruciating and many of the students, despite meeting the clear and obvious threshold of need required for an SNA, are unsuccessful in the review and have to wait until November to hear the outcome. The old allocation model was far from perfect but at least it was an actual model rather than a process that relies on an unsuitable measure. Back then, at least you got a hearing from a special educational needs organiser who actually looked you in the eye and considered your circumstances. Now it is simply a faceless rejection. There is no effort being put into creating an allocation model that will satisfy the needs of those who are currently being left behind. An exceptional review has a role, but any such role must be within an allocation model. On its own, it is completely insufficient. Along with this, there is an implicit but active threat of allocations being reduced, which discourages those who need to apply from making an application if they have any sort of self-doubt. This is completely unjustified. It is as if it is being done by design. Who would go through such an arduous process if they did not need the support?

The issue of the reworked special education teacher allocation has been lamented endlessly by those to whom I spoke in recent days and months, but it is important we do not lose sight of how the changes it will bring in could have devastating consequences for the children who need it most. Autism charity AsIAm, Down Syndrome Ireland and Inclusion Ireland wrote to the Department of Education asking for the new SET allocation model to be paused until those most affected are meaningfully consulted. Today, countless families and advocacy groups still feel as though their needs are being blatantly ignored. Sufficient clarity that this new model will be inclusive and equitable for students with the greatest level of need has not been provided, despite it being raised on numerous occasions in this House and, I suspect, through thousands of emails. The removal of complex needs has jarred with many and the suggestion from the Department that this is due to an increase in special classes in schools is nothing but a weak excuse. Special education settings are suffering from teacher shortages and the lack of places for students is as apparent as it is in every other educational setting in this State, if not more so.

Beyond that, many parents wish for their children to attend mainstream schools in an inclusive and accessible setting but the new model makes this increasingly difficult. The three advocacy groups to which I referred launched a consultative survey back in February to ascertain the views of relevant communities on the new SET model. In early March they found that 96% of parents feared the impact of the proposed changes to the SET allocation. Have those findings been taking seriously by the Department of Education? Has its consultation shaped conversations around future policy? The allocation model must be paused until an adequate system is established. Under the current model, 10% of schools will see their hours reduced by 25 hours per week and 23% will see the existing allocation reduced by up to five hours per week. Families of children with complex needs do not have the time or resources to wait until this system inevitably fails them.

Another issue that was raised consistently in the calls we made to schools - primarily DEIS schools - was the level of emotional need that is not currently being addressed in schools. It is high time, even long past time, particularly coming out of Covid, which accelerated many of these issues, to have proper emotional support in every single school. That could be provided by a therapist who is simply a member of the faculty.

I understand the difficulty in just staffing our schools with teachers at the moment, but the level of emotional need in schools that is not being met is a scandal waiting to happen. We need to move to a point where a therapist is just a member of the faculty within a school; a person in the staff room who is on hand to cater for children's emotional needs. In secondary schools, which I previously worked in, the career guidance teacher often had to step in and provide emotional support. It was all the way up to fourth or fifth year before you ever got to have a conversation with a student about what they would like to do after school, when so much was based on emotional support. In the next Dáil term, whoever gets to allocate budgets for education should be looking at putting a therapist in every school as a matter of practice.

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