A DEVASTATED mum who can’t to find a place in a special school for her son has told how the State is “playing EuroMillions” with her child’s education.
New Education Minister Helen McEntee last week said that she will make sure every child needing special education will have a school place come September.
However, parents across Ireland are still struggling to find places in special schools that can cater for their kids.
Autistic Jay Meehan, five, is one of 20 children who have been left without a 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.
Jay’s mum Rebecca Meehan told The Irish Sun: “The names were basically drawn out of a hat.
“It was done by a lottery system with a Superintendent Garda in the area. It’s mental.
“It is all above board as well. It’s like playing the Euromillions with my child’s education.”
The situation highlights the chronic lack of school places for children with additional needs that is an ongoing problem for families across the country.
Rebecca has been campaigning with other families in Dungarvan for two temporary modular units to be built at St John’s School — to take in more children.
She said: “The system just seems to be invented to exhaust parents.
“We have all our facts. The children have their rights. The constitution is there to protect them. It’s a stressful environment for a lot of parents. It’s unfair.
‘I CAN’T BUILD A SCHOOL’
“I’ve given up my career. I’ve done a masters in autism studies. I’ve done an SNA course.
“We have a sensory room in the house. We have a service dog for him. I’ve gone after absolutely everything I can physically get him but an education — I can’t build a school. If I could I would.
“As parents, we are doing everything we can.
“These kids need this school and they could be in these modular units by September.
“It is going to happen. He is going to that school. I will chain myself to the gates of the school if they don’t let him in.”
REGRESSION RISK
Earlier this month, Rebecca explained: “Even if I was willing to bus him off to Waterford or Cork, there are no places.
“I’m not wasting a second of his education putting him into a setting that’s unsuitable or risking a regression.
“I don’t need a babysitter, I need an education for him. I feel really strongly about that because it’s his right to have that.”
Principal of St John’s Special School, Aoife O’Neill, told the Irish Examiner: “I am working with the NCSE and partners in Cork to see how capacity can be expanded down there to help our cause here and more importantly to help the parents [and] guardians who are crying out for an appropriate school place for their child.”
SPECIAL SCHOOL BATTLE
Elsewhere, mum Anita Daynes is facing a similar battle to try and find her son, Leighton, a place in a special school in Dublin.
The seven-year-old from Tallaght is autistic and has a moderate intellectual disability.
Leighton currently goes to a mainstream school, with the help of an SNA, but his mum says that doctors and teachers agree he needs to be in a special school.
However, he has been repeatedly left on waiting lists for special schools in recent years without ever managing to get a place.
Mum Anita told The Irish Sun: “Leighton has an SNA in the school who is amazing, but the school has no facilities. I had to give up work two years ago because I kept getting phone calls every day to come and change his nappy as they have no facilities.
‘FIGHTING FOR EVERYTHING’
“I’ve been fighting for everything and I’ve done every single course they’ve recommended to try and help but there are just no services.
“Every year I get a letter from the HSE to say he will be seen to next year, and then it becomes the next year and the next year.
“Just to get his assessment of needs I sat outside our HSE facility for three months every day until they gave us an appointment and I’d say they only rang me to get rid of me.”
“We have a sensory room in the house. We have a service dog for him. I’ve gone after absolutely everything I can physically get him but an education — I can’t build a school. If I could I would.”
Rebecca Meehan
Anita is waiting to hear back from two special schools in the area for a place this September, but parents have been told there are staff shortages which are impacting places.
Anita belongs to a group of local parents called Fighting for Appropriate School Places, who have come together to campaign.
MUM’S DESPERATION
She added: “We’re going to be having a protest outside the Dail or government buildings.
“I would go on hunger strike. I really would stay outside their door, day and night, once I have someone to look after my kids.
“I know that might sound a bit nuts but it is just whatever you can do.”
Anita and Leighton’s brother Callen, nine, have been trying to teach him sign language at home.
She said: “Only recently he is starting to do some of the signs. That has taken us two years, but if he was in a school where kids were doing that all the time it would be better for him.”
In a message to Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Anita said: “I’d like him to think about what it is like to step into our shoes for one day — the stress that we go through to try and get our children an education.
“They need to do more for the schools and the SNAs need to be paid properly. Our kids would be lost without the SNAs.”
Meanwhile, a group of more than 50 parents are planning to sleep outside the Department of Education on Friday and stay there for 24 hours to highlight the need for more special school places across the country.
