Parents and educators at Farranree school have to fight for ‘special education’

A Sinn Féin TD and councillor have said they will work to secure an additional Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) class for a Farranree school, but have questioned why parents and educators “always need to fight” when it comes to special education.

Feargal Hurley, principal of Scoil Íosagáin, previously told The Echo that they have had to disappoint parents awaiting a school place for their child after they were not allocated an ASD class they had already made provisions for.

He explained: “We signed the form and sent it, but it was never uploaded onto the system, and when the classes were announced last week, we weren’t included. We were absolutely shocked.”

Councillor for the north west ward Kenneth Collins called for the issue to be rectified, saying: “This is an administrative error that’s meant the people of the northside have been let down.

“We know there’s children without school places, and this is a school that’s doing fantastic work, their principal is incredible and knows what the community needs. It’s disappointing that the school have done their part and the department has failed them.

“Over the last number of months we’ve seen parents take to the street in Cork and fight for places, they’ve had to shout and roar about it, which isn’t right. The government need to correct this wrong in Farranree.”

He added that currently, children with special needs from the northside are “spread out all over Cork, having to go as far as Rochestown or Carrigaline for a place — meanwhile there’s a school here ready to open a special class”.

His party colleague, TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould, said he had spoken with the principal and contacted the department and minister for education.

He told The Echo: “A mistake has been made, but we still may have time to rectify it. There’s two children in mainstream school that will have to stay in mainstream if this isn’t fixed, even though their parents want them in this special class — if there’s not a class there for them, those kids will regress. There was another four children that had signed up to attend also, and their families are very upset.”

He added that children from the northside of the city are travelling to Macroom to avail of school places, saying: “People are travelling 45 minutes to school, and another big problem is children have siblings who can end up going to school far apart and frequently one of them has to be late.”