Special needs law ‘needs to be implemented’

THE Government must put more urgency on implementing laws giving rights to supports in school for children with disabilities, a parents’ leader has claimed.

The roll-out of the 2004 Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act was put on hold in the October 2008 budget but the revised Programme for Government last October makes a commitment that it will be fully implemented in the lifetime of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition.

Among its provisions are that every child with a special need should have the supports they require set out in an individual education plan (IEP) but sections of the act entitling children to the necessary resources are now on hold due to the Government’s budgetary constraints.