Northern Ireland: 'They just don't have enough schools to provide for special education'
The crisis that only gets worse
Things are getting worse for special needs students and their families in Northern Ireland. Around 20 percent of students in Northern Ireland are affected, according to the BBC.
Northern Ireland also has the distinction of having one of the highest autism rates in the world, one in every 20 students, also according to the BBC.
And although the recent stories cited here are about the special education crisis, it’s really about autism. The examples cited are children with autism, and two years ago a British education journal revealed that autism is the most prominent disability affecting students.
Nov 5, 2022, Schools Week: SEND isn’t on the precipice – it’s tipped over the edge
Over half of the children and young people in special schools have a primary or secondary need of autism. For children in early years specialist settings, the figure is 65 per cent….
It seems like we see the same thing every summer in Northern Ireland. Students with special education needs can’t find adequate places for the upcoming school year, and it’s because there are always more of them.
Three stories here paint a dismal picture of the special needs crisis that is never over in Northern Ireland.
June 12, 2024, Belfast Telegraph: Survey of teachers lays bare challenges facing special education sector in Northern Ireland
Cuts jeopardising access to support for vulnerable students, says union
A new survey has laid bare the challenges for the special education sector in Northern Ireland with virtually every respondent saying the number of children with complex needs has risen in their school.
While 99.1% of responses to the NASUWT survey said they have seen the number of children in classes rise, 95.5% said support on offer has not matched the additional numbers of highly complex needs pupils.
Launched at a special event at Stormont on Tuesday, the survey among 224 teachers also found just under 80% said they have suffered violence and physical abuse and more than half of them said that was happening at least once a week (53.1%). . . .
More is never enough
In April Education Minister Paul Givan announced new funding for the special school sector.
He said the new SEN Capital Programme will deliver up to eight entirely new special schools over the next 10 years; new builds for a number of existing special schools; an extension and refurbishment programme for special schools; accommodation for specialist classes in mainstream schools as well as additional maintenance and equipment funding.
The SEN capital programme will require approximately half a billion pounds of capital investment over the next decade. . . .
June 12, 2024, Belfast Telegraph: Special needs children deserve better than constant crisis OP ED
As we approach the end of another school year, many parents will be asking themselves questions about the schools their children will attend in September.
For most families, the choice will be a simple one. For children with special educational needs, however, the choice, or lack thereof, means changing schools is a far from smooth process.
A survey of members of the NASUWT, one of the country’s biggest teaching unions, has shed new light on the state of the special education system in Northern Ireland.
The overwhelmingly negative responses will not be surprising to anyone who works in the sector, or who has a child attending one of the schools.
Teachers, principals and education experts have been warning about a growing problem for a number of years.
While the Department of Education and the Education Authority shy away from using the word ‘crisis’, that is exactly what pupils, families and school staff are facing. . . .
But places are so limited that every summer can become a battleground.
Education Minister Paul Givan has admitted an extra 1,000 classroom places will have to be found ahead of the beginning of the school year. . . .
In the shorter term, staffing shortages are a major problem. Class sizes are rising and, as a result, teachers are at greater risk of both verbal and physical assault. . . .
Better things may be around the corner, but that corner is a long way down the road.
As things currently stand, our special schools are not equipped, in terms of staffing and facilities, to cope with the number of special educational needs students. . . .
And one story is, of course, about a boy with autism.
June 10, 2024, BBC: Lack of school place for autistic boy 'stressful'
"Kids with special needs are among the most vulnerable in our society and they're getting treated like second-class citizens."
That is according to Christopher Flanagan-Kane from north Belfast, whose 11-year-old son is autistic and is still waiting for a post-primary school place for September.
In a statement, the Education Authority (EA) told BBC News NI they had been in contact with Aodhan's family "to provide an update on the placement process and the next steps."
"We fully understand that this is an anxious time for the family," the statement said.
But the EA did not provide an answer when asked by BBC News NI about how many children with special educational needs (SEN) were still waiting to have their school place confirmed. . . .
But the Department of Education (DE) has previously said that there is a big rise in the number of children with special educational needs who require a school place this year. . . .
Aodhan is currently in a special education unit in a mainstream primary but in school for a reduced number of hours. . . .
"This past year has been very challenging for him.
"He first got diagnosed when he was about four with autism and then he was about six when he got diagnosed with ADHD." . . .
"We had put in for a special education school for Aodhan that mainly dealt with behavioural, social and emotional needs - more nurturing rather than educational needs. . . .
But in May the family was informed by the EA that Aodhan had not been placed.
"Aodhan doesn't really fit the criteria for a lot of special education schools because he doesn't really have any learning difficulties as such," according to Mr Flanagan-Kane.
The school his parents had hoped Aodhan could go to has limited places. . . .
"They just don't have enough schools to provide for special education."
In 2023, hundreds of children with SEN started the summer holiday without knowing which school they would be going to when the new school year began.
Senior officials at the EA have also warned that "it is going to be difficult and challenging to place all children" with SEN in summer 2024.
The Education Minister, Paul Givan, has said up to eight new special schools will be built over the next decade, including four in Belfast.
In summary, 1,000 more special ed places will be needed by this fall, and it will take 10 years to build eight more special schools, if they can find the funds.
Maybe the most important comment made was this one:
“Support …has not matched the additional numbers of highly complex needs pupils.”
Until someone has the courage to demand to why there are MORE STUDENTS WITH “HIGHLY COMPLEX NEEDS” this crisis will only get worse until the government is bankrupt trying to pay for it.
The Republic / Representative Democracy, has failed.
We say it has failed because it does not “promote the general welfare, and provide for the common defense” in ways in which we are in agreement.
And because nothing is more important than our national sovereignty, nor is anything so dear to our sacred posterity, we simply must adjust the mechanism of our government or finish the slide into disintegration.
The ball is in our court; since the authority for government comes from The Citizens.
So… how do we get there from here?
We now have to stand up and inform our representatives that they have broken their Oaths and failed in their Duty to the office in which they were entrusted. They are in Breach, and now must either accept our help by adding the Fourth Branch, The Citizens Branch to our government or Vacate the building.
Because Citizenship, true Citizenship, is not about writing letters to elected officials or voting some good person into office.
Citizenship is about the Ratification or Annulment of each line of every law, rule, regulation and supreme court decision on the books or that is on the docket waiting to be turned into law, policy and taxes.
Nothing short of this is going to ameliorate the present situation, nor will we get to the Stars without it.