Boy’s education ‘impeded by layers of bureaucracy’

A JUDGE has questioned the “layers and layers of bureaucracy” which she says are preventing a child from getting an education appropriate to his needs.

The mother of the boy, who is not to be named by court order, is doing everything she can to get an education for her son, yet is being prosecuted by the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB) for failing to send him to school, noted Judge Catherine Staines at Tullamore District Court.

The 16 year old, who has oppositional defiance disorder, ADHD and dyslexia with a reading age of seven years, does not qualify for the Department of Education home tuition scheme because a special educational needs organiser (SENO) says there’s a place for him at his local school and because he doesn’t have one of the chronic illnesses accepted by the department.