Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 17/05/2008

INTO PRESS RELEASE: Statement by John Carr, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers' Organisation on Education for Persons with Special Needs Act - INTO Special Education Conference, Portlaoise

17 May 2008

Resources for New Special Needs Act must be found

The new Minister for Education and Science is facing a huge challenge to provide extra resources for special needs pupils in schools according to the INTO.

The full roll out of the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act is imminent and according to primary teachers there are huge resource implications for government.

“If government fails to resource that legislation then the act as intended will be unimplementable. This is one of the most progressive pieces of legislation to come on the statute books for years,” said John Carr, general secretary. “It must not be allowed to fail children through government failure to provide the proper resources.” He was speaking at a conference on Special Education organised by the INTO in Portlaoise.

According to Carr the implementation of EPSEN will require major training for all 30,000 primary teachers and 25,000 members of school Boards of Management. “There will also be a need to find time for teachers to meet and plan with other professionals,” said Carr. “The type of planning required for these children is not the sort that can be done over a rushed tea-break or during a chance meeting on a school corridor.”

Under the Act children with special needs will have a legal entitlement to an individual education plan setting out specific education goals. This will involve all health and education professionals involved in a child’s education. “If proper manageable procedures for the drawing up and implementation of these plans are not put in place then individual education plans will not happen. Anything that is planned must be managable and practical at school level.”

There must be support for principals given their role under the EPSEN Act including appropriate secretarial and IT support at school level.

The INTO wants to see a firm commitment that the proper support from the health sector will be made available to schools. “Teachers want to see joined up services from psychologists, speech and language therapists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists and doctors in the interests of individual children. A joined up public service must be provided around each child,” said Carr.

The key issue in relation to EPSEN is that the resources must be delivered in tandem with implementation. “We played the catch up game for years. Not this time,” said John Carr INTO general secretary. ENDS