The Government is to speed up the process of compelling schools to provide places for children with special educational needs, The Irish Times has learned.
Legislation being developed by Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister of State for Special Education Josepha Madigan is to be fast-tracked to Cabinet next week, sources said.
The aim is to update section 37A of the Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018, under which the Minister can serve a notice on a school mandating that they make an additional provision for children with special educational needs.
Sources said this process can currently take up to 18 months, with detailed processes stipulated under the current legislation for the Minister and the National Council for Special Education.
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Speaking last week, Ms Madigan told the Dáil she would use “whatever legislative tools I can” to provide more places for children. “As members will know, I already initiated the section 37A process. We are currently examining how we can streamline that process and if emergency legislation will help us to do that.”
The issue of providing places for children with special needs has become a livewire political topic. The Ombudsman for Children found in a report published on Wednesday that the department is failing special needs pupils without school places, with the system characterised by “provision black spots” in Dublin and Cork. Some 15,500 children are forced to travel outside their local school catchment area every day to access a school place.
There has also been backlash in recent weeks over plans for “special education centres” as a solution to what is seen as a looming crisis for school places.
That plan envisaged establishing temporary centres to provide education for dozens of vulnerable children who have not yet secured a special class place in a mainstream school in Dublin. That plan was met with fierce criticism and is continuing to face pushback from campaigners and at Cabinet.
The Irish Times reported earlier this week that despite this, the broad plan is still being examined and has not formally been ruled out.
Labour Party spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that even a strengthened Act was approaching the problem the wrong way. He said that the powers under section 37A had been used twice, and one case was still “stuck in the courts”.
“When you are forcing a school to do something against its will, you’ve lost the argument already,” Mr Ó Ríordáin said.
Speaking on Wednesday, Ms Madigan said she was “absolutely determined” that no child with additional needs would be left without access to education. At present there were 106 pupils with additional needs without a school place in September, she said.
On Thursday the department would publish the names of 14 schools that had additional capacity, in an effort to pressure them to open special education classes, Ms Madigan told RTÉ Six One News.
Officials had written to the schools to inform them if they did not provide extra spaces for pupils with additional needs, the Minister would launch a section 37A process to mandate them to do so.
“I ultimately don’t want to embarrass schools, but I want them where they have capacity to volunteer their facilities to include children with additional needs,” she said.
Ms Madigan confirmed she intended to “streamline” the 37A process, with officials discussing “emergency legislation” with the Attorney General at present.
