Children with special needs ‘partially excluded’ from school

Children with special educational needs are still being excluded from activities in school despite an increase in support allocations, a parents group has said.

The Special Needs Parents Association said the latest figures indicated "an improvement or stability" in the level of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) allocations.

“However, this has to be viewed in the context of increased class sizes, the continuing levels of complexity presenting in children in mainstream school settings and the lack of available supports from disability services to address a multitude of needs that directly impact on a child being able to access the curriculum in a meaningful way.”

The group's chairwoman Lorraine Dempsey said: "We can play around with the concept of having an inclusive education system, but the gap between reality and neatly presented statistics is evident in the cases that we deal with every day."

She said “children remain partially excluded from schools because staff cannot meet the needs of a particular child, where parents get called in to take child home on a regular basis and cases where parents have been expected to accompany child on school outings or else the child will be excluded from going.

“Whether this is as a result of lack of SNA support or lack of training and ability to cope with the needs of these children in addition to 30 other pupils in a class, the results impact negatively on the child and family and this must be addressed.”

The group also said that the timing of the release left schools with little time to answer parents queries on what level of SNA support they can expect for their child next September and “puts school principals under undue pressure with only two days left in this school year”.

More than 250 additional SNAs have been allocated to primary and secondary schools for the 2014/2015 year, bringing the total number to over 10,900. As with every year, there is a adjustment between schools depending on identified needs in enrolments.

Under the changes announced by the National Council for Special Education, 29 per cent of schools will have a greater level of SNA support next year, 20 per cent will have a reduced allocation, while the remaining 51 per cent have no change to their level of SNA support.

The trade union Impact said the increase in posts - by 195 (or 3 per cent) at primary level, and 68.5 (3.2 per cent) at post-primary post on last year - was welcome.

However, its assistant general secretary Dessie Robinson said a detailed look at the figures revealed a "further fragmentation of the posts allocated". The removal of SNAs from many schools "may well result in a reduction of service to certain children with special needs and it will certainly mean a reduction in paid working hours for many low-paid special needs assistants," he said.

“We are seeking a concrete commitment from the education department that it will protect whole-time positions.”

A school by school breakdown of posts is available at ncse.ie