'Two-year wait' for special needs help

SPECIAL NEEDS children moving from primary to secondary school are waiting up to two years for assistance because of a lack of resources, a teachers' union leader said yesterday.

Susie Hall, who became president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) at the start of August, said getting proper support for students with learning difficulties will be one of her main priorities this year.

She said students who had the benefit of resource teachers or special needs assistants in primary school were often left waiting up to two years into their second-level education before receiving similar help.