A single-school enrolment system is being examined by the Government to help prevent parents of children with special needs having to apply to multiple schools to secure school places.
Currently many parents end up applying to dozens of schools in the hope of securing places which meet their children’s assessed needs in either special units in mainstream schools or special schools. A common applications system will be trialled in the Dublin 15 area initially, where there is an acute shortage of school places for children with special needs. If successful Minister of State for special education Hildegarde Naughton has pledged to roll it out nationally.
Latest figures indicate more than 120 children with special needs have yet to secure a school place at the start of the 2024/25 school year.
The Ombudsman for Children has criticised the “unacceptable” situation faced by vulnerable children and their families, as well as the lack of data for planning and monitoring the quality of these school places. Parents have also expressed anger and frustration at seeing their children regress due to difficulties securing appropriate education or missing out on vital therapeutic interventions which their children need.
While additional special classes and special school capacity have been secured in recent weeks, informed sources say it could be as late as March or April before all children have access to a school place.
Ms Naughton, meanwhile, has established a taskforce for the Dublin 15 area which she said will work to ensure sufficient special educational placements will be provided for the next school year and beyond.
“This group will examine better ways to establish the level of need in the area so that school places can be provided earlier, giving families certainty and avoiding unnecessary stress,” she said. “Parents tell me they have applied to 10 or 20 schools. Parents should not have to do that. We want this group to examine the possibility of a common application system being introduced to reduce the burden on parents so that parents only have to apply once.”
She said these measures will help give the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) a clearer picture on the number of children in need of a place.
The taskforce is chaired by Don Mahon, a former primary teacher, school principal and Department of Education inspector. It will contact stakeholders, including parents, school principals and patrons to secure nominees to sit on it and will begin work shortly.
“As part of these efforts to identify and meet the need for special educational placements earlier, better communication and information sharing between the HSE and departments are needed when children present with conditions that affect their education or when they are not meeting developmental milestones,” Ms Naughton said. “All this information needs to be shared earlier on children’s journeys so that when they come into the education system there is no mystery about children with additional needs.”
It has also emerged that the Department of Education used new legislative powers – introduced in 2022 – twice this year to compel schools to accept children with special needs.
The Education (Provision in Respect of Children with Special Educational Needs) Act (2022) allows the Minister for Education to direct a school to open a special class within six to eight weeks of receiving a report from the NCSE setting out its opinion that there are insufficient school places in a certain area.
About 250,000 children with special needs are accommodated in mainstream schools with supports. A further 28,000 children are either in special classes or special schools.
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