Principals warn 'catch-all' special schools will push pupils back into mainstream classes
The school leaders, who oversee 30 special schools in 19 counties, serving more than 3,000 students, say they face growing pressure from the Department of Education to change their schools' current designation to include children with 'complex needs'.
The principals have warned that this broadening of criteria will result in a phasing-out of special school places for children with mild and general learning disabilities.
The Department of Education told schools last week of new plans aimed at resolving long-standing issues with the application system for special education, which sees families struggling to find places each year.
These issues, as previously highlighted by the Irish Examiner, include a lack of access to appropriate school places.
The 30 special schools affected by the new criteria work with children who have mild and general learning disabilities, which typically means a child has an IQ between 50 and 69, as well as with students who are considered 'borderline'.
The schools also work with autistic students, often making up more than 50% of the student body, and who have a dual diagnosis of mild and general learning disabilities and don't fit the typical autism class model.
The schools offer the full primary curriculum, the Junior Cycle at Levels 2 and 3, QQI Level 3, and the Leaving Certificate Applied.
However, the principals now fear their model of education is at risk, according to spokeswoman for the group, Debbie O'Neill, principal of Scoil Eoin in Crumlin.
Instead of creating new special school places, the department's plan simply reallocates existing places. This pushes children with mild and general learning disabilities back into mainstream environments that have already failed them.
'This is not inclusive education. It is reactive, rushed, and deeply unfair," she said.
The pressure on schools to change designations to cater for a wider cohort of disabilities has become 'very apparent' in recent years, particularly as the crisis in placements for autistic children took hold.
'They are calling them 'catch-all' special schools, which is the most horrendously disrespectful language to any child or parent with a disability, and they are looking for us to become these 'catch-all' special schools," Ms O'Neill said.
'Mild' schools redundant
Within four years, the intention is that 'mild' schools would be 'redundant' and students would be back in mainstream classrooms. There would only be a specialised setting for those with the most complex needs, Ms O'Neill said.
The recent circular concerned principals as the new language used around designation has been 'kept vague on purpose', she added.
'We recognise the urgent need to find school places for autistic children," she said.
No child should be left without a school place, and no family should be left in limbo. We stand with those parents. We want those children to be supported.
However, the apparent current strategy of 'repurposing mild and general learning disabilities schools" is not the answer, Ms O'Neill said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said it is not the intention to exclude children who require a special school place from accessing certain special schools.
However, it is not "appropriate" that children and young people have to pass special schools and travel long distances because "they don't meet the narrow criteria for admission to those special schools who cater for children with mild general learning disabilities", the spokesperson said.
"A number of these special schools have already moved to broaden the profile of students they support, in response to the changing needs of students. The department and the National Council For Special Education will support other schools to do the same."
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