Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding the National Educational Psychological Service. On Wednesday, 8 March 2017, on the question that the amendment to the motion be agreed to, a division was claimed, and in accordance with Standing Order 70(2), that division must be taken now.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“recognises that: — the National Educational Psychology Service (NEPS) is drastically understaffed, with 619 primary and post-primary schools across the State without access to a NEPS psychologist for the purposes of carrying out an assessment;

— the restriction of two assessments per 100 pupils under the current scheme means that access to a psychological assessment for a developmental or behavioural issue is unacceptably constrained, creating adverse effects on children’s education and reducing access to resource teaching hours and learning supports, and privileging households that have the resources to opt for private assessment;

— the insufficient resourcing of early intervention and school age teams for mental health and disability, means that the complex special education needs of a child are not always identified or assessed prior to enrolment at school;

— there are serious inequities and defects in the current allocation of resource teachers and learning supports across schools;

— the reduction of resource teaching hours to 85% of that recommended by the Special Education Review Committee was a cruel cut to vulnerable children; and

— there is a serious shortage of special autism spectrum disorder (ASD) classes at post-primary level, with less than half (45%) of the number of classes available at primary level; overall there are 548 classes at primary level and just 237 at postprimary, and there is also a severe shortage of ASD classes at pre-school level, with only 127 classes available throughout the State; acknowledges that: — while the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has proposed a reformed system, whereby access to resource teaching would no longer rely upon a formal diagnosis of learning difficulty, emotional or behavioural problems, there are legitimate concerns over aspects of the proposed new allocation model for resource teaching and learning supports that need to be addressed;

— the absence of special ASD classes in secondary schools is a travesty and is creating a real discrimination against children with ASD, and a much greater sense of urgency is required to ensure that these children can claim their entitlement to education by gaining admission to an appropriate school; and

— the outlawing of ‘soft barriers’ in the Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill 2016, to children with autism being admitted to school is insufficient to deal with the scale of the crisis; and calls on the Government to: — immediately restore the 15% cut in resource teaching hours and publish information on the criteria used to establish the resource allocation to schools, under the new resource allocation model, particularly in respect of the future complex needs model;

— give a firm commitment that no child with special educational needs will have their resource teaching hours or learning supports reduced under the new allocation model;

— ensure that an appropriate and robust appeals mechanism will be in place, as recommended by Inclusion Ireland, the NCSE and the inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills, to address unanticipated changes in a school’s profile under the new resource allocation model, including instances where children start school from September 2017 or transfer from another school with special educational needs;

— immediately commit to the provision of sufficient resources for early intervention and school age teams for mental health and disability, including immediate funding for the recruitment of staff to fill all current vacancies;

— bestow the NCSE with statutory powers to direct schools at primary and post-primary level to establish autism units and-or special classes where these are required in an area; and

— act on the commitment in A Programme for Partnership Government to increase the capacity of the NEPS service, by the recruitment within a two-year timeframe of at least 100 additional NEPS psychologists with the goal of reducing the ratio of students to psychologists in real terms and ensuring that children have access to a timely assessment as envisaged by the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004.”