Urgent action needed on autism school places
Urgent action needed on autism school places - The Labour Party
Labour education spokesperson Deputy Eoghan Kenny has said that Government must urgently overhaul how school places for children with autism are planned and allocated, following an Examiner report today that a Dublin mother was told to apply for a place in Wicklow and Kildare despite living just yards from a local school, and he has called on the Minister for Education to immediately introduce a centralised application system to ensure children can access appropriate education close to home.
Deputy Kenny said:
“What this family has experienced is not an exception, it is a symptom of a system that is failing children with additional needs and pushing parents to breaking point. We are facing another summer of parents having to take to the streets simply to secure a school place for their child with autism, and that is a damning indictment of Government inaction. No parent should be told that their child must travel across counties to access an education when a school sits on their doorstep. That is not a choice, it is chaos.
“This case lays bare the complete disconnect between where places are being created and where children actually live. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will point to the opening of new special classes and new places, and of course any additional provision is welcome, but opening places without proper planning is not enough. Places must be appropriately distributed and they must be in the right settings to meet the specific needs of each child. A place that exists only on paper, or one that is hours away from a child’s home, does not meet that test.
“A core problem is the absence of a centralised application system within the National Council for Special Education. Because applications are scattered across individual schools, it is impossible to properly track the level of need, to see where demand is concentrated, or to plan ahead in a meaningful way. Labour has long called for a centralised system so that the State finally has a clear picture of how many children need places, what type of places they need, and where those places must be delivered. Without that data, the Government is effectively planning blind.
“Minister must stop firefighting and start planning properly. That means putting a centralised application system in place without delay, using that information to plan provision years in advance, and ensuring that every new place opened is in the right location and in the right setting. It also means engaging honestly with parents instead of leaving them in limbo and hoping the problem goes away. Minister must act now to put a fair, transparent and planned system in place so that every child with autism can access an appropriate school place close to home, where they belong.”