Special needs but no special funding
- Published: 21 September 2008
By Martha Kearns
The Epsen Act should bring special needs education into the 21st century but, with no resources from the government, its implementation looks uncertain.
Casey Naughton is just nine years old, but already he has fallen foul of the obstacles facing children in Ireland who have special educational needs.
The Offaly boy, who has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome, was turned away from 23 schools after being expelled from his local school, Daingean NS, in February, for behavioural problems.
After an intervention by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Casey finally got a place in Charleville NS in Tullamore. A meeting took place last Friday at the school to discuss the boy's behavioural support needs. It is hoped that he can be integrated into a mainstream class this week.
However, the problems Casey faces in receiving an education are not over - and his situation is familiar to many parents, teachers and students across the country.
Ireland's provision of education for children with special needs has long been the focus of criticism. The integration of such children into mainstream education has been developing on an ad hoc basis since the 1990s, with many changes following court cases taken by parents of children with autism and other special needs.
Improvements made over the past ten years include an almost 300 per cent increase in the number of teachers supporting special needs in mainstream schools - from fewer than 2,000 in 1997 to almost 7,800 in 2008, according to Department of Education & Science figures.
But new, structured changes are now coming down the tracks, with the rollout of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (Epsen) Act. The Epsen Act 2004 was a groundbreaking piece of legislation which redefined special educational needs and enshrined the rights of children with such needs. It was welcomed on both sides of the educational divide.
However, teachers now fear that they will not be able to deal with the legal requirements the new act will impose on them - and they are sceptical about whether they will get the additional resources from the department to cope with the new responsibilities. These issues could put the implementation of the act in jeopardy.
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