State agrees to temporary funding of home school for autistic children

As part of the settlement of an action by four autistic children, the State has agreed to pay €215,000 to ensure the survival until July next of a school for the children which was set up by parents in the back garden of one of their homes.

The High Court heard yesterday the children who have attended the ICANDO (Irish Children Autism Network for Development Opportunities) school at Clontarf, Dublin, have made such progress that one of them is now attending mainstream school full-time.

The other three continue to attend the ICANDO school but are also attending mainstream schools part-time.

Part of the settlement of their action involves an agreement by the Department of Education that one of its senior officials will meet them to discuss future educational provision.

Their solicitor, Mr Colm MacGeehin, said there had been no agreement to meet the parents until legal proceedings were taken.

The proceedings were taken on behalf of Oisín Fulham (7), Hollybrook Grove, Clontarf; Alex Dunne (7), Aulden Grange, Santry, Dublin; Aidan Murphy (7), Southern Cross, Inchicore, Dublin; and Megan Walsh (6), Moyglare Abbey, Maynooth, Co Kildare.

After the settlement was approved yesterday, Mr Colm Fulham, Oisín's father, said the parents regretted they had had to go to court to secure appropriate education for their children. He was not fully happy with the settlement and stressed it applied only to July next. He said the parents might have to return to court again to ensure their children would receive appropriate education.

Mr Mike Walsh, father of Megan, said: "What we want is for the Department to assume its responsibility for the education of our children and that it's not again left to us." Mr Peter Murphy, Aidan's father, said the Department "seem to prefer dealing with court cases than dealing with issues".

With other parents, Mr Fulham built the ICANDO school in the back garden of his home at Hollybrook Grove, Clontarf. The Fulhams re--mortgaged their home to build the school which opened in 1999 with four children who were educated according to the system of applied behaviour analysis (ABA), which involves a one- to-one pupil-teacher ratio.

The parents took legal proceedings to secure State funding for the school. In late 2000, the State agreed to provide interim funding for the school of £1,300 a week pending the outcome of the case.

The legal proceedings were due to open on Tuesday last but negotiations between the parties ended in yesterday's settlement.

Dr Michael Forde SC, for the children, said they had suffered from very severe autism and no provision of any kind had been made for such children by the State up to about three years ago.

The parents had built their own school and hired four teachers and other staff. Without their parents' endeavours, these children would have been in a much more backward position, Dr Forde said.

Mr Justice Kearns said he had no hesitation in approving the settlement and was glad a resolution had been reached.