No child should be left behind – Labour motion to tackle school places
No child should be left behind - Labour motion to tackle school places - The Labour Party
Tomorrow (April 30th) the Dáil will debate a Labour Party motion to ensure that every child has an appropriate school place in their locality in September 2025.
Under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, 126 children with special educational needs had no place at the start of this school year in September.
This is in the context of 14,221 children overdue an assessment of needs in December 2024, nearly 13,000 children waiting for initial contact with a Children’s Disability Network Team, and tens of thousands of children on primary care wait lists for treatment, adding further pressure on schools and educators to support children with additional unmet needs.
Publishing the motion, Labour education spokesperson Eoghan Kenny TD said:
“No child should be left behind, yet under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil we have become a country of waiting lists. Across the country, families of children with additional educational needs are facing unacceptable levels of uncertainty.
“How we treat our children is a marker for what type of society we exist in, and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have consistently failed to vindicate the basic rights of all children.
“Tomorrow morning in the Dáil we will demand political action and leadership for the hundreds of children and their parents impacted by this Government’s failure to properly plan for the needs of our education system.
“This crisis is one of the Government’s own making. Parents and educators continue to raise significant concerns about the current system of planning for SEN provision, where schools are put under pressure at short notice to open classes without adequate resourcing, appropriate accommodation or training for staff, and with minimal specialised support.
“399 new special classes were announced for the 2025/26 school year earlier this month, but many children will still struggle to secure places appropriate to their needs in their local community.
“This is about basic equality. Every child deserves the best start in life, that must not depend on where they live or how complex their needs are. Our education system must aspire to have the right supports in place across the country to give children the dignity of knowing that they belong.
“With a new Education Minister in situ, there is a real opportunity for this Government to have a lasting impact on our education system. To end the mistreatment of children with additional educational needs, to equip our school communities with the supports our society needs, and to provide equality in the access to education for all children.”