Ivana Bacik: Calls for Emergency Action on Special Ed Crisis

For most children across the country, this is the first week of their summer holidays, an exciting and positive time. But for hundreds of families, this is the first week of a final countdown they've long been dreading. Because as of this week, far too many children with special educational needs are still officially without a school place for this coming September. What a disgrace in a republic that claims to value education. In desperation, many parents have been forced to go public about their child's situation. One such parent is Labour councillor Alison Field. Alison is in the gallery today. On her Instagram account, you'll find posts about her work, providing support for people in her Dublin community every day. As of last night, you'll see posts also about her work in her new role as Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin City. And I want to congratulate Ali, and I hope you'll join me in congratulating her, and indeed your own party colleague, new Dublin Mayor Daryl Bannon. But Taoiseach, there's another running theme to Alison's social media posts. She's had to use her profile to highlight the ongoing failure of the state to provide her son James with a school place. Recently, James received rejections from two more schools. That brings the family's grand total up to 18. So James, a vulnerable child, has been rejected 18 times, refused care, refused an education. In Ali's words, he's on the department's books since he was five. He is 12 now. So the Department of Education has had seven years to provide him with a secondary school place, to plan for this. And now, with mere weeks to go, his mother has again had to resort to social media to plead for answers. The family are banking on one last school, hoping for what Ali describes as a miracle. But Taoiseach, families like Ali's should not need a miracle. What they're asking for is something that most children can take for granted. In a wealthy country in the 21st century, an education, it should be a given. But so many children have been abandoned by the state. Children like six-year-old Christian Walsh, who's autistic and non-verbal, and this September will mark his third year without a primary school place. His mother says most of her days are now spent fighting for a basic right that every child should enjoy. Taoiseach, Minister Hildegard Nocton, and indeed yourself, you have repeatedly assured parents that every child will have a place. But is that true, Taoiseach? Because parents have heard those promises before. Many have had to become experts in advocacy and public policy because all they're getting are delays, confusion, and copy and paste refusal letters. And many now say they have no hope left. So, Taoiseach, what can you say to someone who has lost hope of providing their child with an education, when you know there's been a shortage of places, you know demand is rising? So why are parents and children now entering the summer holidays without any certainty? I am asking, Taoiseach, now that schools are closing for the summer, how many children are still without a school place for next year? And when are you going to treat this as a national emergency? Because for so many parents like Ali, so many children like James, this is a personal emergency. First of all, the scale of demand for special education places and their response to it over the past six years has been exceptional. And I think balance and perspective are required here. Thousands of children are being provided for. Every year, additional places are being found. So you know yourself, when the portal was opened earlier last year, which was a good thing, the NCSC, National Council of Special Education, received applications from about 7,860 children for a special placement. That is more than twice the number who did so ahead of the current school year. So please let's acknowledge that. So of those 7,860, 6,000 or 75% were already enrolled in a school, but then they obviously were seeking a special provision in addition to being in a given school placement. Every school, every child who requires a special school placement and has been notified to the NCSC will have a place in September. Okay, that is the target. We have already announced 580 new special classes, 378 at primary, 202 at post-primary, that will open this September, in addition to 60 new inclusive special classes, with the latest tranche of five additional classes announced yesterday by Minister of State Michael Moynihan. Primary special classes have grown by 99%, from about 1,319 to 2,629 today. Post-primary special classes have grown by 115%, so that's from 517 to 1,122 over the last five years. SNA numbers have increased by 45%, so we'll have more than 26,000 special needs assistants working in schools by the end of the year. There will be almost 22,500 special education teachers in place by year-end. 16 new special schools have opened in the last number of years. Four more have recently been announced in Balbriggan, City West, Bray and Monaster Evan. And then special school enrolments are up 20%. Over 40% of special schools have benefited from new or upgraded buildings. So clearly Minister Hildegard Nogden, Minister Michael Moynihan, ministers before them, have been very active on this issue. And we have more to do. And I fully accept the anxiety and stress and trauma that a family can experience, and parents in particular can experience, when they're finding it extremely difficult to get a school place. And we have put in place provisions where the NCSE would be more proactive and act as advocates for children in securing an appropriate and suitable place for the child. And given the changes that have occurred prior to this school year, particularly we're up to 6,000 additional who are already in school and have sought special accommodation. I think it's fair to say that the department has been stretched but has really moved at pace to provide the additional places to teachers and NSAs to meet the need that is out there. Well Taoiseach, certainly we acknowledge that places have been found for many, many children, and of course that's welcome. But it shouldn't be remarkable or something to boast about, because there are still children and parents and families left waiting and left without certainty. And I do welcome your commitment, and I think you did give a commitment, that every child who needs a school place will have one this year. That's extremely welcome. But I think parents are losing hope that government will fulfill these promises, because they've heard this before and there's still no certainty. After February's debacle, when the NCSE told 200 schools they would lose SNAs, we thought then there might be progress and certainty made on special education. And we've been here every year. Every year we've heard from parents and children that their children, like Christian, like James, are being left without a place. And they and their families are paying a terrible price for this failure, Taoiseach, because we know that for every year, for every period of time, a child is left without a place. That will impact negatively on their development. Your government did already find hundreds of millions of euro for special ed this year, and indeed you had to bail out the Department of Education earlier this year, so parents were told the resources would be there. But we still don't know how many children, like James and Christian, are left without a place, and can you guarantee those places will be filled, will be available for this September? Deputy, there are 30,000 students now who are supported across special schools and special classes, and you are correct, we allocated an additional £646 million to education, and that is helping in terms of the special education provision. And also the decision last year in terms of, I mean, in opening the portal early led to far more applications than perhaps was anticipated by the department, and it was almost double last year. Even though last year we also delivered about 2,700 new special education places, and last year I think it was about, we delivered about 4,000, sorry, well over 450, up to close to 500 special classes, so this is growing exponentially. And the bigger question for all of us in the Dáil and so on is how does this evolve over time, and a more critical analysis and evaluation is required. I mean, the SNA issue, there are 26,000 SNAs, it's increasing dramatically over the last five to six years, so provision is being provided and resources are being allocated.