Michael Clifford: Children with special needs left in quiet desperation since school closures

Some vulnerable pupils have been left without contact from teachers or SNAs and have had vital supports withdrawn, writes Special Correspondent Michael Clifford

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Huge focus has been placed in recent days on the welfare of the country’s 55,000 Leaving Cert students.

Their lives have been subjected to upheaval following cancellation of the exam. The body politic has been consumed with the issue.

But what of the education problems that have arisen for another cohort of children and teenagers? One in four children have special education needs (SEN). Since the closure of schools on March 12 many within that cohort, and their families, have been experiencing acute upheaval on a daily basis.

Supports that are a vital scaffolding in assisting these children to reach their potential have been withdrawn. The routine that is central plank of regulation for many is gone. And the withdrawal of social interaction with teachers, special needs assistants, and other children is having a profound impact on their wellbeing.

Against such a background, one might have expected major efforts to ensure that children with SEN received proper attention during this period. Yet while some teachers, principals, and special needs assistants have gone the extra mile in that respect, there have been serious deficiencies.

The Inclusion Ireland survey on access to education for SEN children during the lockdown bears this out. As reported in today’s Irish Examiner, 35% of respondents said their child was not getting proper supports or that they were not being told what was expected of them in terms of home schooling. Over half predicted that their children will have difficulties returning when schools reopen.

Some children have had virtually no contact from their school since March 12. One mother explained how her son has been impacted.

“The only people in his life apart from immediate family are educators and health professionals and it would be very important to see those people from a human point of view apart at all from learning,” she  told the Irish Examiner.

He hasn’t seen sight nor sound from anybody in the school. It’s appalling on his behalf in terms of his needs. And parents are not equipped to deal with the stress that comes from the withdrawal of supports.

Some parents have vented their despair on social media. One parent of a child in an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) unit in a mainstream school posted on Facebook that she had no contact whatsoever from the class teacher or SNA, despite the unit only having six pupils.

“After weeks of no contact whatsoever and then a few useless emails attaching sheets to print out for colouring etc, I spent a significant amount of time and energy in putting together a long email referencing the new guidance notes, setting out exactly what our main issues are, and what would really help - primarily, a resource pack with particular items from the school, as well as help in actually teaching him his letters and dealing with certain issues such as trying to keep his attention. The response was underwhelming to say the least – “Try Amazon”….”

The CEO of Austim charity As I Am, Adam Harris, has conducted meetings with parents across the country about the issue and he says that it would appear that the quality of education now on offer is “a postcode lottery”.

What emerges is a picture in which proper consideration has not been given to the unique impacts the shutdown would have on these children. Two aspects to the issue enhance this view.

On April 22, the Department of Education issued a document to assist families with children with special needs in the current environment.

Guidance on Continuity of Schooling: Supporting Pupils with Special Education Needs is full of commonsense advice but a question arises as to why such a document was issued 41 days after the schools closed. Did it take that long to realise  there was going to be a particular problem for children in SEN and their families? Surely that should should have been obvious to anybody with the most cursory knowledge of special needs education.

The other aspect that has had a major impact is the reassignment of special needs assistants to the HSE, something decided on at a time when there was a real fear that the health service could be overwhelmed by the virus.

Problems arose almost immediately with delays in Garda vetting. Despite having been vetted for their role in education, the SNAs had to be vetted again. Then there were fears among some of them that they might be deployed to places like nursing homes, where they would be ill equipped for the duties required.

Following intervention, that plan was changed to have the SNAs working with children with disabilities who are in receipt of HSE services. The delays have ensured that that has yet to get off the ground.

The redeployment means many SNAs have lost all contact with the pupils with whom they were working prior to the shutdown.

“In about 20% of schools some SNAs have stepped in and maintained contact,” according to Andy Pike, national secretary for the Forsa union which represents SNAs. He says the model of maintaining direct contact with the pupils would have been a far better one to follow.

Now, those pupils in receipt of HSE services have some prospect of being reunited with their SNAs, but many others not in receipt of services continue to be left high and dry.

“[The Department of] Education should have looked at a simple way of maintaining contact with SNAs and students from the start,” Mr Pike says.

SNAs have been messed around, they have been given conflicting information and they just want to check in with their students. Many haven’t been allowed to do that from the start.

There has, to a certain extent, been a solidarity with vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, in response to the pandemic. Many have thankfully benefited from this societal esprit de corps.

Children in special needs education have their own vulnerabilities. As of now, all the evidence is that many among them, and their families, have been left to carry on in quiet desperation at a time when they need proper supports more than ever.