Autism school to teach 60 children

UP TO 60 children are to be taught in what is believed to be the country’s first large special school dedicated to pupils with autism.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin has allowed the Rehab Group to act as patron to a primary school for the first time, with a number of other organisations also seeking Department of Education approval to set up autism-specific primary schools.

Rehab plans to offer six pre-school and 18 primary school places at the facility in Patrickswell, Co Limerick, in September. It will operate from temporary accommodation on a five-acre site, where it is planned to provide a purpose-built school alongside the group’s existing services.

The school will teach pupils by a number of methods, in accordance with the Department of Education’s policy not to support educating children with autism through one method alone.

This has been at the centre of controversy over the department’s refusal to fund Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) tuition, and instead offer places in autism units attached to mainstream schools.

The Rehab school will use ABA and other methods including TEACCH, PECS, MEBS, and an individual education plan will be developed for each pupil.

“This will ensure a holistic approach, not only concentrating on the education of the child, but also on other areas such as independent living, social and leisure skills, play skills, communications skills and self-care,” said Ms Hanafin.

Rehab Group chief executive Angela Kerins said it is planned to increase the number of places to more than 60 in four years.

“The organisation is being recognised for the first time as a patron of primary schools and Rehab is very committed to providing appropriate education for young people with autism,” she said.

The first pupils will have four classrooms and a gym, as well as access to Rehab’s autism facilities on the site, including a soft playroom, a multi-sensory room, a sensory playground and after-school services.

The minister’s policy in relation to ABA was highlighted last month when costs were not awarded to the parents of seven-year-old Seán Ó Cuanacháin, who lost their High Court action last year seeking to have the cost of his ABA tuition paid by the Department of Education.

Minister of State Trevor Sargent told the Seanad on Thursday it sickens him that families of autistic children must take on the onerous task of going to court. Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald said Ms Hanafin should echo her Government colleague’s stance and tell her department to cover the costs of hearings like the Ó Cuanacháin case.

Dr Rita Honan of Trinity College Dublin this week criticised the minister’s policy not to fund additional ABA classes apart from those at 12 existing schools.

Almost 300 primary schools now have units catering for children with autism, almost 100 of them added in the last year.