THIS week, we told the story of little Jay Meehan, who has been left without a place at a local special school.
Autistic Jay, five, is one of 20 children who have no place at their local special school, St John’s in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
The school’s waiting list was so oversubscribed that a lottery-style draw took place for the eight available places.
New Education Minister Helen McEntee has said that she will make sure every child needing special education will have a school place by September.
But parents across Ireland are struggling to find places in special schools that can cater for their kids so much so that many protested outside the Department of Education on Friday.
Writing in The Irish Sun on Sunday today, Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, who raised Jay’s case in the Dail following our story, says families should not need to go public to secure the bare minimum for their child.
LAST Saturday, Waterford was named Ireland’s first autism-friendly city by AsIAm, the country’s leading autism charity, for the city’s dedication to adopting inclusive measures for neurodivergent people.
Yet, in Dungarvan, just over a 30-minute drive from the city, families of autistic children had to draw lots for the chance of a school place for their child.
This was the case for five-year-old Jay Meehan, who, along with 19 other children, lost out on a place.
Being forced to play a lottery with your child’s education is a new low in our disability service crisis.
Meanwhile, in Dublin on Friday, parents staged a 24-hour sleep-out to highlight the lack of special school places for their children.
No parent should have to go to such lengths to secure the bare minimum — a school place.
Every child in the country has a constitutional right to an education. This isn’t an optional extra.
Schools are on the frontline of this crisis, but they are not to blame.
Successive governments have turned a blind eye to the needs, and rights, of children with additional needs.
Services have been deprived of resources, recruitment has been an afterthought and, ultimately, this issue has never been a real priority for any government.
We see this failure in every aspect of state services. Earlier this week, this newspaper highlighted the case of six-year-old Tiernan Power-Murphy.
LEFT IN PAIN
He had been told he could be waiting 10 years for urgent dental care — despite being in excruciating pain.
Tiernan has now been given an appointment for early this month, but only after his family went public and the State was embarrassed into action.
The question is, why did it take the glare of the media spotlight and politicians raising Tiernan’s case in the Dail before the State bothered to treat a sick child?
We see this repeatedly. The only thing children with additional needs are guaranteed is a long wait.
Instead of getting access to vital services, they get repeated excuses and roadblocks.
FORCED TO GO PUBLIC
The only way to move forward, too frequently, is for their families to sacrifice their privacy and go public.
For every family who goes public, there are thousands of others in the same situation.
We must never forget about the names we haven’t heard — the thousands of children behind the damning statistics who are being prevented from reaching their full potential.
All over the country there are parents who leave their jobs to become full-time carers, who send countless emails and make endless phone calls, and who travel long distances to the one suitable school with a place for their child.
SO MANY IMPACTED
There are thousands of names we don’t know.
I recently spoke in the Dail about a young boy in my constituency who has received an autism diagnosis.
The boy has significant emotional difficulties that are at risk of worsening in the absence of psycho- logical support.
Primary care services in Cork estimated his start date for psychology to be October 2030 — a wait of almost six years.
This is a shocking indictment of a broken system.
RECRUITMENT ISSUE
Recruitment is clearly in crisis, with nearly 700 vacancies in children’s disability network teams, for example.
Excessive vacancies reflect high rates of burnout and low morale among staff and, consequently, poor retention. It’s a vicious circle.
We often talk about the need for a radical reset in housing policy, because of successive governments’ abject failure.
A similar radical reset is urgently needed in disability policy.
I would strongly encourage ministers Norma Foley and Michael Moynihan to consult with families, clinicians, SNAs, teachers and principals to learn what’s happening on the ground.
Waiting lists in Cork and Kerry for primary care psychology now exceed 6,000 names, while wait times are close to six years for some children.
The crisis in special education and autism service provision can only be resolved through reform that is driven by meaningful and sustained engagement with the families and frontline staff who are at its epicentre.
