Affluent areas failing to provide schooling for kids with autism
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Children with autism in affluent suburbs of Cork and Dublin are attending classes in disadvantaged areas because non-Deis schools don't want them or fail to cater for them.
Campaigners claim children with autism are forced to travel long distances from their own homes because of a "socio-economic class issue".
In south Dublin alone, €63k is spent every day transporting children with special needs to other schools in other parts of the city.
Figures compiled by advocacy groups and educationalists show there are three times as many Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) classes in Deis schools than in other public schools in both Cork and Dublin.
In Dublin, there are 130 post-primary schools inside the M50, of which just 23 have ASD classes. Of those 23, just two are in non-Deis schools, according to figures compiled by Involve Autism.
The group obtained documents under a Freedom of Information request that showed there are 1,974 children all over south Dublin being transported at a daily cost of €63,579. This accounts for €11.6m in a school year.
In Cork City, there are 20 ASD classes in the city’s 26 secondary schools. These classes are in nine schools, eight of which have Deis status.
Only one class out of the 20 is in a non-Deis school, according to figures compiled by teacher Graham Manning, who organises ASD classes in the city.
He said there was simply no way to ignore that socio-economic class plays a huge role in this.
“Generally speaking, given the preponderance of classes in Deis schools, that speaks to a class issue, so nobody can argue that point.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan referenced this phenomenon in a speech in the Dáil in May 2019.
Mr Ryan, the father of a child with autism, said some communities were very deficient in providing for children.
“Dublin 6 is the worst in the country,” he said. “We’re too posh. We’re so high up in the league tables we couldn’t afford to have an autism school.”
Involve Autism chair Miriam Kenny says that parents in Dublin 6 and 6W in the south of the city continue to be faced with a difficult choice.
“They have to either opt for inappropriate placement in a mainstream local school or to transport their children well outside the local community to secure an appropriate place, travelling long journeys each day past many great local schools that serve their peers and siblings.”
A spokesperson for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) said that the issue of whether or not a school has a Deis status is not a consideration when the body is planning special classes in schools.
“Generally, schools respond well to an approach from the NCSE,” he said.
Schools get Deis status (delivering equality of opportunity in schools) if there are located in poorer communities and need extra resources to address the inequality of opportunity that exists for children.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a review commissioned after a whistleblower raised concerns about secret dossiers on children with autism within the Department of Health said the information held on the children and their families was "very personal", "sensitive" and at times "distressing".
has reported that the senior counsel review, which was commissioned in 2020 following a protected disclosure by whistleblower Shane Corr, confirms that the Department used spreadsheets to store information regarding dormant legal cases involving children with special educational needs.