Concern over autism schools’ status

TUTORS and parents at some of the country’s 13 ABA schools for children with autism have raised concerns about Department of Education proposals to give them full special school status, describing it as “the death of ABA schooling in Ireland”.

Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) teachers have also questioned how the existing pilot model could be rejected by the department when “whole school evaluations” never took place.

A number of parents and tutors have said they can’t understand why the department is set against ABA when there is a raft of international academic research highlighting how beneficial it is to children with autism.