Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise an issue I raised by way of a Commencement matter yesterday to ensure when we resume after the summer recess we can have a real conversion about the expulsion of kids with special needs from schools. I have spoken about autism and special needs many times in this House but every time I read a newspaper article or get an email and read the words “violent”, “behavioural challenges” or “not suitable for the school” I cannot seem to wrap my head around why that is an acceptable thing to say. I read a story in The Irish Times a few weeks ago about another school, Stepping Stones Special School. I am not sure where it is based. A mother, Lourdes, spoke eloquently in that newspaper article about the experience her family has had of their 16-year-old boy, Conor, being expelled from the school. I cannot understand how an educational setting, established to meet a particular set of needs, frames things as behavioural challenges or deals with things in a punitive way. Kids are literally expelled from schools that are supposed to be set up to meet their needs.It is framed that the schools were not a suitable placement for those children. How can we say a school is set up, resourced and its staff trained to work with children with additional needs but when they present with those additional needs, they are told they have too many additional needs or their meltdowns are too much for that school? It is framed as if there was a breakdown in communication or a breakdown with the family or with the school when we have not levelled enough of the blame on the schools. They cannot continue to claim to be schools that specialise in these areas and then expel kids for the very reason that they are there. Meltdowns vary and manifest themselves in different ways. They can be very physical, loud, include lots of crying or lashing out. The answer in some schools is to expel those kids for the very thing that they do most naturally to calm down and to manage a sensory overload and the situation in the school. If our schools are set up supposedly to meet the needs of children like Conor, how can schools expel such children? How does that make sense? We need to start to have a real conversation about the fact that if a school is set up to meet additional needs and expels a child, that school cannot meet the criteria of being that type of school.

We need to address this as we go into another academic year to ensure no more children become collateral damage due to our inability to create educational systems that can meet their needs. When we resume after the recess in September, I would love if we could have a conversation on meeting the constitutional right of children to be able to access education.