The Department of Education moved yesterday to halt mounting anger amongst parents and schools by sending out 469 letters regarding special needs children who are about to start school.
A further 231 children ready to start school are still waiting for their applications to be processed.
In addition, more than a thousand children who are already in school will have to wait until October for news on whether their requests for special teaching have been approved.
Yesterday's batch of letters will be received so late that hundreds of children starting school will be without the support services they need.
This has caused a major "headache" for principals, and is depriving children of resources they deserve, according to the Irish National Teachers' Organisation.
The 469 letters were in response to a backlog of nearly 2000 applications, which have been held in a bottleneck since last February due to the illness of a Department of Education staff member.
The INTO has demanded a complete overhaul of special needs resources.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has already ordered a review of services, to begin in September.
Thousands of children have yet to see their cases addressed by the Department, stated the INTO.
"The reality of this is that schools and teachers will simply be unable to meet the special needs of these children without these resources," stated Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO.
"Even those schools where resources have been granted are up against an impossibly tight schedule to be ready for next week when the new school year begins," he stated.
Jobs have to be advertised, interviews held and people appointed. This is simply not possible in the time available, according to Mr Carr.
The INTO wants to see a new system whereby the provision of resources is based on the numbers of pupils in a school.
Currently, resources for each individual child must be applied for separately. This waiting game means that many schools are in danger of losing teachers who cannot be told if they have jobs or not.