‘I fear the next call because of SNA cuts’

Bridgette Keane dreams of a day her seven-year-old son Mark can tell her he loves her — and hopes it will happen.

But while he is progressing well at school, she fears that no longer having a special needs assistant (SNA) with him at all times means the boy with Down syndrome who cannot speak and is not toilet trained could be left in wet or soiled clothes because of the latest education cuts.

National Council for Special Education (NCSE) chief executive Teresa Griffin said on Wednesday she is satisfied that all children with care needs have been given the correct SNA support.

Bridgette, from Sutton in Dublin, does not agree, after Scoil Muire agus Iosef Junior where Mark is in senior infants had its allocation cut from 2.33 to 1.5 SNAs by the NCSE for the coming school year.

I'm puzzled. Cuts to SNA hours, they're saying no reduction in numbers but my SNA friend & 3 of her colleagues are being laid off in Sept?

— Eleanor Fitzsimons (@EleanorFitz) June 20, 2013

“There were three boys with Down syndrome in the school and Mark had one SNA with him all the time this year, and one of the boys is moving on in September. But if Mark has access to only 0.75 of an SNA in September, what happens when his nappy needs changing and the two SNAs or other adults needed under child protection aren’t available to do it because one or more SNAs are with other children who also need care?

“The SNAs and the resource teachers do great work, as do the class teachers, with him. But I’ll be afraid the next phone call is going to be telling me I have to collect him because nobody can change him,” she said.

She questions how the NCSE can decide his care needs have diminished and believes there is no justification for cutting support.

“I really hope there will be a time when he might only need occasional access to an SNA, but unfortunately his care needs are the same as a year ago,” said Bridgette.

Mark is non-verbal and an audio system in class helps him hear the teacher better. But while poor motor skills mean he finds it hard to hold a pencil, he has been getting on well.

Like other children who have Down syndrome with other disabilities, he willalso lose another 20 to 30 minutes a week of one-to-one resource teaching under the latest cuts, meaning 10 to 15 minutes less per day than that given to similar pupils up to 2011.

Bridgette is one of thousands of parents expected to join a protest organised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation at the Dáil on Wednesday, calling on the Government to find the money elsewhere instead of targeting the disabled again.

“They think we’re an easy target, and a lot of parents can’t get to protests because so much time is taken up with our kids. But if they have a mother, brother, sister or friend who can come along, they should show their support,” said Bridgette.

All the parents in the country should support them because the issue effects their children as well as pupils with special needs.

“I know and I’m really grateful for it, how class teachers who see a child struggling give him the attention he needs if it’s not there because of the cuts we’ve already seen,” she said.

“But Mark has a twin brother in the other senior infant class and as his mother too I know it’s not fair to have teachers split their time like that when the Government can’t find the money anywhere else.”