No one likes to label children but this has become a key feature of the current system of allocating resources.
In this at least, change would be welcome, says Valerie Sullivan, whose son Mark (11) attends Dalkey School Project in south Dublin.
“The last thing you want to get with a child is a mild diagnosis because they lose all support. So you are hoping for a worse diagnosis when the child is going to school. It’s terrible.”
While Mark is accessing various teaching support resources, she says she knows of parents who had wished for a worse diagnosis for their children so they could also qualify.
The mother and son attended a demonstration outside the Dáil this week to express concern at possible changes in the provision of special needs assistants (SNAs).
The planned changes to the teaching support hours regime could trigger further fears, although Ms Sullivan broadly welcomes the move towards allocating resources based on the child’s needs rather than diagnosis.
Currently, Mark receives several additional hours of resource teaching a week, divided into small group learning, and one-to-one sessions. His resource teacher Clodagh Robinson “isn’t just available 9am-2pm; I can text her at night, on holidays”, she notes.
Concern among parents
The school has a number of other children with learning disabilities and so is unlikely to lose any support hours under the new system. Nonetheless, there will be concern among parents like Valerie that the process is carefully managed.
She emphasises that children whose learning is improving shouldn’t be penalised for such progress.
“When Mark started school his speech would have been very bad; he needed a lot of support just to be understood. That is not necessary now because his speech is much improved. But for everything new he does in class he needs support for that.”
Inclusion Ireland, which represents those working with people with an intellectual disability, broadly welcomed the report but also queried its planned implementation.
‘Detail clarified’
“The detail of how resources are to be allocated based on a child’s needs rather than diagnosis needs to be clarified as a priority,” its
chief executive Paddy Connolly said. “Many parents in the current climate, and with some justification, suspect policy changes are a further attempt to cut supports.”
Mr Connolly renewed his call on the Government to fully implement the Education For Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (Epsen) 2004.
“The last time we met with Minister Quinn he told us that the cost of Epsen was too high in the current climate. This position should be substantiated with a detailed and costed timeline for full implementation of Epsen.”
