Special needs plan to precede Down bill

A system giving schools power to decide how much special needs teaching pupils get is likely to precede the passing of a bill that would give automatic entitlement to resource teaching to all children with Down Syndrome.

The Cabinet decided on Tuesday that it will not oppose the second stage of Independent TD Finian McGrath’s bill, due before the Dáil tomorrow, allowing it go to committee stage.

Current policy means 20 to 30 children with Down Syndrome who start school each year do not get an individual allocation of one-to-one teaching. This is because they have mild, rather than moderate, general learning disability or because they do not have another qualifying disability.