The new legislation on special education proposed by the Government isn't going to be welcomed in every quarter. Certainly not on the Clare-Galway border, where parents have been campaigning for a resource teacher in a group of primary schools.
Catherine Sides, one of the parents, is mother of 5 1/2-year-old Aoife. Her daughter had some learning difficulties, but with the help of a private-employed speech therapist she was able to enrol at the national school at New Quay, where her mother is now on the board of management.
The pupils were provided with a classroom assistant. However, when Catherine went looking for a resource teacher, the Department of Education and Science informed her that it could only approve one if the post met specified hours; in other words, if there could be co-operation with other schools.
This was to be the start of a long battle, one which parents of children with learning difficulties have had to get used to waging in this State. It is only within the last five years that the Department has introduced resource teachers to provide specialist educational services for pupils with intellectual disabilities who are attending mainstream schools.
Professionals in the area recognise that integration is now far better for all children involved, both those with and without learning disabilities, than segregation. However, already there has been criticism that resource teachers are "under-resourced" and don't receive adequate time for training.
The Department was informed that four schools at New Quay, Ballyvaughan, Carron and Fanore required the services of a resource teacher. Its response was that a post could be approved, but it would have to be part-time, totalling 151/2 hours a week. Catherine Sides was very disappointed. The geographical location of the schools is such that the job would prove impossible to fill.
She went back to the Department. More children were due for assessment, and this could justify the need for a fulltime post. However, assessment is slow, and the summer days were passing quickly. Couldn't a post be advertised in any case, subject to final sanction?
She received no support for this. She then found another school, which would bring the hours up to 20 1/2, just half an hour short of a full-time qualification.
A spokesman for the Department told The Irish Times it was aware that additional assessments were under way and that another school had been located. A total of 15 1/2 hours had been sanctioned, but this might be subject to alteration, dependent on the outcome of the additional assessment reports.
And there it stands, just a fortnight before schools open again, and after a summer spent by Catherine Sides on the telephone. Not surprisingly, she is disenchanted. "I think of all the parents like me in this situation, who are challenged at every point in terms of rearing their children," she said. "You are meant to feel grateful if you receive any help from the State, when in fact it should be a child's right to receive this support."
She is fully aware of the value of early intervention in Aoife's case and in the case of many children like her. She is opposed to the idea that special education might now be hived off into a proposed new council. "I don't think there is a school in the country without children with special needs, and so I believe it needs to become an integral part of the education system, rather than being distanced from it," she said.
"It also needs to become an integral part of the Department of Health and Children, as this is where the children are first seen. Unfortunately, the services here are sadly lacking in some areas, such as speech therapy."
The combination of early intervention and improved communication and co-operation between the two Government Departments is the only solution in Catherine Sides's view.
"The mission statement of the Department of Education and Science is to ensure the provision of a comprehensive, cost-effective and accessible education system of the highest quality, as measured by international standards, which will enable individuals to develop to their full potential as persons and to participate fully as citizens in society and contribute to Ireland's social and economic development," she said, quoting from the official strategy.
"The reality appears to be that those people who cannot afford to get help privately, or who cannot contest it with the Government in court - as Kathy Sinnott had to - or simply have not got the time or energy left to constantly fight for what is surely a basic right are just to be forgotten about."