National Council for Special Education Circular has led to School Principles discouraging admissions of special needs children
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:00
By Snpa Pro
A new situation has arisen as a result of capping the no. of SNA's at 10575, where school principals are now either STRONGLY discouraging parents from enrolling their child with special needs or REFUSING to enrol them prior to a psychological report being produced? This is a new, perverse and discriminatory phenomenon that is being reported in increasing numbers as a result of an NSCE Circular. The cut-off date for support applications has been brought forward by months to 18th March which allows parents and Healthcare Professionals little time to assess and prepare the necessary documentation.
The National Council for Special Education Circular NCSE 01/11, which was released to all primary schools on the 8th February, outlines how the new General Allocation Model is to be applied in order for the system of educational supports to function, under the current cap of Special Needs Assistants of 10,575 which was announced in Budget 2011 last December.
"All applications for SNA supports must be considered in the context of the national cap of 10,575 whole time equivalent SNA posts in schools as provided for in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 and DES Circular 06/2011".
Special Educational Needs Officers (SENOs) have been directed to carry out a review of 3,000 schools to assess the capacity to allocate SNA supports for the 2011/12 school year which "will be largely determined by the level of SNA posts freed up at the end of the 2010/11 school year" and not on the basis of the needs of the children with special needs in that particular school.
The cap of 10,575 has already been reached for this school year, therefore numbers will only be freed up by children leaving primary school in June 2011 and "Children whose requirement to access to SNA support is diminishing because they are developing a greater level of independence in the school setting". This level of independence will be decided on the basis of a snapshot observation of the pupil on a particular day and parents experience since February 2010, is that little regard will be given to accompanying Professional Reports which are based on a continuous assessment of the child's needs by a Healthcare Professional.
Decisions on the level of SNA support will only be given after the 20th of June and only in the case of applications that have been submitted prior to the 18th March. This is a nightmare scenario for schools that have an enrolment cut off towards the end of February as it gives little time to arrange the appropriate assessments and professionals such as Educational Psychologists will be overwhelmed trying to produce these reports in time for the March 18th deadline. "Given the tight timeframe for the national allocation process, it may not be possible for SENOs to process applications received from schools after this date before the end of June. In this regard, schools should make every effort to obtain the necessary professional reports for submission within the deadline".
The most concerning issue is that "in the case of new applications where....the care needs as being related to behaviour, in general it will not be possible to consider access to SNA support until the school has set out that have been employed and that have been implemented to minimise the pupil's difficulties and to promote adaptive behaviours.....there must be clear evidence that the student's behaviour is a danger to themselves or others and that sustained efforts by the school have not been proven to be successful in the amelioration of such documented behaviours".
This will result in educational opportunities being lost for the pupil with behavioural difficulties, excess pressure on the class teacher to cope with such behaviours and unnecessary disruption to class where previously this would not have occurred with the relevant supports in situ for that child.
The circular has outlined that only after it has been proven by the school, that a child presents a danger to themselves or other staff and pupils, will the situation be reviewed. This will undoubtedly open up a school to litigation if the child injures themselves or another pupil due to inadequate supervision as a result of these new measures. The effects of this reflect on the whole school population, pupils, teachers, principals and Boards of Management.
The appeals process by which school principals could seek a review of a SENO's decision by a Senior SENO is now defunct. “The current model of appeal is not appropriate for use in the context of SNA allocation. Therefore the new mechanism for use by schools and parents will be developed after the operation of the above resource allocation process itself has been examined. This is scheduled to take place in September/October next in the context of the conclusion and the outcome of the 2011/12 allocation process".
This essentially leaves schools with no appeals process until well after the school year has begun and major problems that were anticipated have come to the fore.
This is a crisis for parents of children with behavioural difficulties due to ADD, ADHD, ASD, ODD and many other conditions that lead to behavioural difficulties and it will affect not only them but the entire school population. We are talking about 5 and 6 year old children who need the maximum amount of support on entering the Irish Education System.
Special Needs Parents Association
www.specialneedsparents.ie