Danny Healy-Rae Calls for Automatic SNA Continuity for Autism
Danny Healy-Rae spoke about services for children with autism, urging the Department of Education to ensure special education provision follows automatically from primary to post-primary. He criticised the Department's claims about SNA coverage and argued that SNA teachers must be placed locally where children are.
Healy-Rae insisted that when special educational supports are developed from the start they should follow the child into post-primary education automatically, so parents do not have to fight repeatedly for continuity of support.
He said parents of children with autism face a large burden, having to fight for primary school places, special needs teachers, and then again when children move to post-primary, and emphasised that children have a right to education like every other child.
He criticised the Department of Education's assertion that SNA places cover the country, pointing out that long distances between schools and transport issues mean an SNA based several miles away is no help to a child in school transport.
He thanked Labour for the motion and acknowledged a visit to St Mary of the Angels special school in Beaufort, saying there is more work to be done to address gaps in provision and local placement of SNAs.
Automatic continuity from primary to post-primary
Healy-Rae insisted that when special educational supports are developed from the start they should follow the child into post-primary education automatically, so parents do not have to fight repeatedly for continuity of support.
Parents facing repeated battles for support
He said parents of children with autism face a large burden, having to fight for primary school places, special needs teachers, and then again when children move to post-primary, and emphasised that children have a right to education like every other child.
SNA allocation and local placement concerns
He criticised the Department of Education's assertion that SNA places cover the country, pointing out that long distances between schools and transport issues mean an SNA based several miles away is no help to a child in school transport.
Local school visit and further work needed
He thanked Labour for the motion and acknowledged a visit to St Mary of the Angels special school in Beaufort, saying there is more work to be done to address gaps in provision and local placement of SNAs.
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Transcript
Thank you very much. First of all I want to thank Labour for putting this motion in front of us here today, it's very important and nothing more important than this. Large burden is pleased on parents when they see their child develops with autism and they have to fight for everything, they have to fight for primary school education and fight for special needs teachers. And then when they move on to post-primary school they have to do it again. But I'm saying to the Department of Education, surely when they develop it from the start it should follow through from primary to post-primary and that should be automatic that they shouldn't have to fight again for this. So many children, they have a right to education like every other child and if it's special education so be it. I should have thanked you for visiting St Mary of the Angels in Beaufort, our special school and other schools indeed but especially Mary of the Angels and we have a lot more work to do there. But the other problem that arises when the Department say they have so many SNA places and that they have the country covered. In many cases they don't Minister because your constituency is the same as mine. I mean there's big distances between different schools and a school with an SNA for a child seven or eight miles away is no good if they're in transport and that often happens that there isn't. So we need to ensure that these SNA teachers are placed locally where the children are. They're entitled locally and there was recognition given to... Thank you Deputy. Sorry, sorry but look it's very very important. Thank you Deputy.