Unanimous opposition to plans to remove need for diagnosis for special class place

There has been unanimous opposition from teacher representative groups to Department of Education plans to remove the need for a child to have a diagnosis in order to gain entry to a special class.The department met all three teaching unions, school management bodies, principals and other education bodies twice over the last month to discuss the proposed change to the system of allocating special class places. Currently, children must have a professional diagnosis stating they have a special educational need and require a place. The proposed system would remove the need for a diagnosis, which the department has argued does not in itself identify a child’s educational needs, and instead focuses on identifying the supports required by a child across the areas of learning, development, participation and wellbeing.READ MOREIn order to do this, information would be gathered on what supports a child has already received and what impact their needs were having on attendance and achievement. Once this data had been obtained, an application for access to a special class would be made to an independent panel that would make the final decision. It was suggested that a trial would begin in the spring, with a view to it being implemented from next September for the cohort of students seeking places from September 2028.However, the plans have been put on hold after strong opposition to the idea from all of the stakeholders consulted. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) wrote a letter to the department saying they would be directing members not to co-operate with any new model until the unions’ concerns were addressed.“There is broad concern among the three teacher unions that while there is a shared commitment to inclusion, the model as presented will not be workable in the current Irish education context without significant improvement in the availability of supports and resources for schools,” the letter states.They cited concerns about the potential extra workload on teachers, the pressures on existing resources and parental expectations around access to special classes.The removal of the need for a diagnosis would be “detrimental to schools, teachers and children” and would “take schools and staff to breaking point”, the National Association of Special School Principals said in a statement.While it is true that “families wait too long for an assessment”, the answer is “to fix access to assessment, not to scrap diagnosis and leave schools to fill the gap”, the association said. A diagnosis informs a school on what a child’s difficulties are and helps to shape teaching and without it schools are guessing, it added. The association asked for the proposal to be withdrawn and for timely access to assessment to be provided instead.In a statement, the department said it is “examining how best to ensure equitable and appropriate access to educational provision and supports for children and young people with special educational needs. “This work builds on significant reforms already implemented, including the removal of the requirement for a diagnosis to access supports in mainstream schools in 2017 and, more recently, to access SNA [special needs assistant] support,” it said.However, the department said it “recognises that diagnosis will continue to play an important role for many children, young people and families” and that “this work remains at an early stage of development”.“Any future proposals will be informed by extensive engagement with education stakeholders, advocacy organisations and disabled persons organisations – this work is already under way – to ensure that a broad range of perspectives is considered before decisions are made.”