'She has gone backwards': Father's impassioned plea to reopen special needs schools

Sophie-Mai Pierse, age 17, who has Down syndrome is missing her education at St Ita’s & St Joseph’s Special School in Tralee. Picture: Domnick Walsh

The father of a young girl with special needs has told of his dismay at watching a disconcerting regression in her educational development over the past month.

Sophie-Mai Pierse, who has Down syndrome, had been starting to catch up on her educational development at St Ita’s & St Joseph’s Special School in Tralee in the wake of the first lockdown when classes were shut down again at the start of the year.