Parents campaign for Katie to benefit from one-to-one resource teaching

Katie Connolly turned five in February, has Down’s syndrome, and will start school in September.

However, because Katie has a mild rather than a moderate learning disability, and has no other disability, she will not get the guaranteed resource teaching her parents, Jackie and Ray, believe she deserves. She will only be given extra support from within the school’s general allocation of resource and learning support, which mostly provides for literacy and numeracy, and she might not get the three hours a week tailored teaching her parents want.

The family say children with Down’s syndrome should be given automatic entitlement to one-to-one resource teaching, which used to be the case until Department of Education rules changed in 2005.

“She has been going to Montessori, she’s had occupational therapy, and speech and language therapy, and she was assessed as having a mild general learning disability,” said Jackie. “But children with Down’s syndrome learn differently and learning support isn’t what they need.”

The family, from Donnybrook, Cork City, have joined other parents to form Down’s syndrome Education Equality Advocates and are asking Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to change the rules that would see their children given at least three hours resource teaching every week.

“We believe there is an inequality and discrimination to the current system which requires some children with Down’s syndrome to have a second disability to access vital resource hours,” said Jackie.

“Our children need reinforcement of what they learn in class, that is what resource teaching would give them.”

Jackie said around 80 of the 120 children born in Ireland each year with Down’s syndrome go to mainstream schools. However, almost 60 of them get resource teaching hours, either having been assessed as having moderate general learning disability or another low-incidence disability that qualifies them.

“This leaves around 24 children a year, and giving them each three hours a week would be equivalent of three teacher posts, or just over €1m a year for children in each of the eight years of primary school,” said Jackie. “It’s a drop in the ocean of the education budget.”

The department said children with Down’s syndrome who have a mild general learning disability continue to receive resource teaching through the general allocation model, only that the amount is decided by the school rather than the National Council for Special Education. A spokesperson said policy advice it expects soon from the NCSE on supports for all children with special educational needs will address the issue of whether Down’s syndrome should be reclassified as a low-incidence disability, regardless of assessed cognitive ability.