Special education centres plan 'won't wash' as Government denies abandoning integration
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A Government plan to send children with additional needs who cannot access school places to "special education centres" is unconstitutional, according to a prominent children’s rights lawyer.
The plan, confirmed on Twitter by Josepha Madigan, the special education minister, late on Wednesday night, has already been called into question and there has been a fierce reaction from advocates for children with special educational needs.
The creation of five special education centres was proposed as an emergency response to the shortage of appropriate school places for children with special educational needs.
The five centres to initially proposed were for Dublin, taking in 24 children each, and would be run by the Education and Training Boards (ETB).
However, following public outcry and an emergency meeting with disability advocates yesterday, the minister said the plan was still in its “infancy” and just one of a number of options being explored.
Children's rights lawyer Gareth Noble said the plan "won't wash legally, morally".
Placing children with autism in isolated centres potentially away from their peers and their community was not appropriate, Mr Noble said.
“It doesn’t meet the constitutional standard of a suitable and appropriate education. It is completely contrary to the UN Convention,” he said.
"There wouldn’t be a court in the land I can safely predict would stand over this," he said.
There are concerns such centres would not meet the standards required under the Education Act, which notes children with special needs have the same rights to appropriate education as those without.
“It is an absolute non-runner, non-starter,” Mr Noble said. “It is being used as a substitute for what families are constitutionally entitled to.”
Ms Madigan appeared to row back on the plans last night saying “there are a number of different proposals” under consideration.
She added that capacity was not meeting demand in any area, particularly in pinch points such as Dublin and Cork.
“One of the reasons that we wanted to try and look at the ETBs was because one of the things that struck me is that we have a lot of children on home tuition.
“These children are to a certain extent segregated anyway in their home environments, because they're not actually going in socialising with their peers and in an adequate learning environment and we wanted to offer the parents an option.
“I want to ensure that the constitutional right of every child is vindicated. That's absolutely paramount.”
Ms Madigan stressed that the planned centres would not replace any special classes.
She called on schools to provide special education classes as 130 children with special educational needs are without a place.
This year alone, over 300 special classes were created, she said, resulting in 1,800 class cases with a total of 2,118 special classes across the country. However, the number still falls far short of the requirements.
Ms Madigan said she would be issuing a Section 37a notice to any school that did not have a legitimate reason for not opening a special class.
Earlier, the Tánaiste said the Government's policy of integration in education had not been abandoned.
However, Leo Varadkar said that Labour TD Duncan Smith was correct to say "language is important".
"I think the language that was used on Wednesday night was not the best language.
"I don't like the use of the term autism centre because it sounds othering," he said.
Adam Harris, chief executive of charity AsIAm, said it was "very clear that there was a sharp change in tone in the department overnight".
"While it is being presented as being an early stage idea, and I had a meeting with the department early today, it remains that the idea suggested at the moment is a total non-starter,” Mr Harris said.
He said the model initially proposed misunderstood the support needs of people and promoted a model of segregation, with a broader context of “temporary measures that become permanent offerings”.
“It is about trust,” he said. “Families can’t trust that this will be temporary.”