Special Education in Ireland's Secondary Schools

This article is an introduction to special education in Irish secondary schools. The past then years have witnessed a sea change in special education provision in Ireland. The Department of Education and Science has issued numerous directives and guidelines in relation to policy, provision, structure and supports. Since 1998 there have been ten pieces of legislation passed through the Dail that relate, one way or another to children and special education needs The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has been established along with the Special Education Support Service (SESS). Both these organisations oversee and coordinate all special education initiatives nationwide. Ireland's primary schools have pioneered these new directives. Special education provision at primary level is developing at a rapid pace and great strides are being made. The next horizon for improvement is secondary school.

Ireland's secondary schools are driven by an exam-oriented curriculum. Subject area specialists teach all of the curricular content. The supports available to children with special needs are not extensive or as tested as those at primary level. In what follows we will look at the needs and entitlements of children entering secondary school who have identified special education needs and those who are entering and later discovered to have a special education need.

My child has been receiving extra help in primary school. What should I look for in a secondary school?

You should look for a school with a special education teacher in place on a full-time basis to support all children with special needs in the school. It is important to also be sure the school has a commitment to supporting and educating children with special needs. The school should have on its staff teachers who have had some training in how to differentiate their methodology and curriculum for children with special needs. There should be an accepting attitude on the part of all staff. Remember, your child is entitled to enter fully into the life of the school and avail of all it has to offer. How do you find out these things? Talk to the school principal and ask questions about the topics listed above. Remember, your child may be eligible for special consideration at the time of Junior Cert and Leaving Cert but this will have to be determined about a year before these exams will be taken.

What is s/he entitled to?

A child who has been receiving special education resources or support in primary school is eligible for continued support at secondary level so long as they continue to have a special education need. It is possible that a primary school child, after receiving several years of support, could no longer be deemed to have a special education need but this is the exception not the rule.

Your child will be entitled to the same general provision he or she received in primary school. Typically this takes the form of specialist teaching from a Learning Support or Special Education Resource teacher (both are now often being referred to simply as Special Education teachers. This support is to be determined based on need with the number of hours of support being determined by the Individual Education Plan (IEP) drawn up in the last year of primary school. In addition to the IEP there should have been a Transition Plan completed during the last year of primary school The Transition Plan will devise the structure of transition to secondary school and may alter the IEP for a short period of time. If this happens there should be a team meeting in about six months or less to write the secondary school IEP. In general students in secondary school are eligible for the same supports as in primary school. This may include a Special Needs Assistant (SNA).

How do I go about making sure they get that?

Generally speaking your child's Individual Education Plan is the map which documents exactly what services your child will receive, when he or she will receive them and from whom. The IEP is your best protection against a child not receiving the services they need. IEP's will eventually become legally binding documents on all parties and a school must provide the services outlined in the IEP. An IEP cannot be changed or implemented without your consent. Remember that upon entering secondary school a Transition Plan may be in place that slightly alters the previous IEP. This will have to be reviewed within a short span of time to be sure the child receives appropriate support services. Don't be afraid to talk to the school principal because he or she is ultimately responsible to see to it that children receive the services they are entitled to receive.

What are my options if we run into difficulties?

Should problems arise you should first speak to the Year Head and address your concerns. The Special Needs Organiser (SENO) assigned to the school should be alerted as well as the appropriate special education teacher(s). A team meeting, of which you are entitled to be a member, can be convened within a reasonable time frame and your concerns will be discussed. If this meeting does not satisfy you or not result in the child receiving the services you may contact the National Council for Special Education for further information and support.

It is important to take things one step at a time. Speak to your child's special education teacher first and be clear about your concerns. Be assertive and not aggressive. Remember, generally speaking everyone is doing the best they can. Do have your child's IEP in front of you when you are speaking to the teacher or other staff member. Be aware of your rights to appeal as outlined in the NCSE and SESS websites. Don't rush to judgement, try and work things out amicably before you make threats to appeal. The next most important port of call will be the Special Needs Organiser assigned to the school.

Hidden Disabilities

Not all children who have special education needs come to the attention of parents or educators in primary school. The human brain is an organ that tries to meet the demands placed upon it at any given time. As anyone who has gone to school knows, the demands of the curriculum get greater and greater each year of schooling. In secondary school the curriculum subjects become incredibly complex each year. The fact that a student is being educated by many different teachers each year further complicates matters. There are students who have had no difficulty suggestive of a special education need at primary school who suddenly seem to have a lot of difficulties in secondary school. Unfortunately they are often perceived as "lazy" or "unmotivated" and sometimes as "difficult" students.

If these labels stick and no thought or concern raised about a possible learning difficulty being present the student can become trapped in a cycle of failure and rejection by teachers. The result could be early school leaving, behaviour difficulties to hide the learning problem, lowered self-esteem, loss of self-confidence and trouble at home. It is important to recognise that some students, no matter how well they performed in primary school, may have a special education need that doesn't appear until secondary school.

What are the warning signs?

It is not possible to list the many warning signs of a hidden disability but generally speaking one should be considered any time a student with a previously successfully record in primary school begins to exhibit difficulties in secondary school. There are a variety of causes to school failure at second level but a hidden disability can often be reasonably suspected when one or more of the following difficulties become noticeable:

oMemory problems

oOrganisational difficulties

oRefusal to go to school

oProblems with written language expression

oDifficulty organising thoughts into speech

oInability to recall facts from yesterday's lesson even if they seemed retained the night before

oUnusual spelling problems

oUnusual difficulty with more advanced mathematical problems

oPronounced difficulty in foreign language class

oBehavioural difficulties not present in primary school

oMood swings or sudden mood changes that last several hours

oReluctance to engage with parents about school difficulties

Although a partial list it is a good guide for parents and teachers to thoughtfully consider the presence of a hidden learning disability.

I think my child may have a problem. Where do I go from here?

First speak with your child's teachers. Ask for the facts: what does teacher think the problem might be? How often is this occurring? When? Is it serious? Present your own perception to the teacher(s) clearly and succinctly. If you have done some Internet homework on your own be clear about it and raise it as a query needing to be resolved. Try and get some samples from homework you have seen and ask for some samples of the child's work in class if it is appropriate to do so. Speak to the Year Head and ask him or her to get some information about your concerns from all teachers. See if you can spot a pattern that validates your concern.

If you become more concerned then you have a right to ask for an assessment. Sometimes the special education teacher, with your permission, can perform some individually administered tests to discover if the child is seriously behind in reading or math achievement age. It is possible to discover if there are significant written language deficits in some cases. If this assessment leads to more significant concerns then you should request a psychological assessment. These can be provided free by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) but be mindful that a lengthy waiting list may be in place.

The most important thing is to be persistent and to talk to the right people. Begin with teachers, speak to Year Head, go to Principal if necessary and don't forget the Special Education Needs Organiser (SENO). If an assessment is carried out there will be a team meeting to discuss the results and to begin the process of writing an IEP.

In the case of a diagnosis, where do we go from here?

If your child is found to have a special education need an IEP should be written. This is, as stated previously, a road map to your child's education plan. It should be reviewed annually but can be reviewed more frequently if it is decided to do so. The special education team, often referred to as a multidisciplinary team, will be responsible for writing the IEP. You are a member of that team. Your child is also entitled to be a member of the team and it is particularly important for secondary school students to participate in this stage of planning. This gives them a sense of ownership and control over their educational life.

Be sure that the plan covers all the areas of concern that have been discovered in the assessment process. Plans for children with social and behavioural difficulties that address only academic issues are useless and doomed to fail. Special education planning is a thoughtful and time-consuming process when it is done correctly. Don't feel rushed into accepting a plan you don't think will work. Take it away and ask if you can return in a week to revise it with the team. This may not make you the most popular parent in the school but it is responsible parenting.

Possible Panels:

Autism/Asperger's in Secondary School

There are large numbers of children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder that are having considerable difficulty finding a secondary school to enrol them. The problem revolves around the lack of supports at second level and the lack of teacher training in this speciality area. Unfortunately there is little that can be done if a school refuses to enrol a child on the autistic spectrum. What is needed is the development of resource support. By that I mean resource rooms where these children can get services by a specialist teacher. Availability to the teachers of advanced training. Availability of print and video resources teachers can access to learn more about the spectrum. Along with this there should be a whole-school commitment to inclusion for children on the spectrum so they are not isolated from same-age peers.

The education of children on the spectrum is not that difficult once educators get the knowledge about how to do it and have the proper attitude towards these children and their families. Of course they present us with challenges but the good news is that once we get it reasonably right for them we begin to improve the education of all children. There are considerable challenges in the future to our secondary schools in education these children and it is time to get it right. Those schools which stubbornly refuse to enrol children on the spectrum are in the stone age of education. There is a clear choice for secondary schools in relation to these children: be in the forefront of change and development or be left behind forever. Parents will not forgive or forget. It's time to get it right once and for all.

ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder affects about 5% of all children and adults. Unlike other special education conditions, children and adolescents with ADHD are frequently blamed for having the condition, perceived as hostile or unmotivated, lazy or cheeky. When ADHD goes untreated it becomes a serious condition affecting self-esteem, motivation, behaviour, self-confidence and relationships with adults and peers. ADHD is a high-stakes condition and it needs to be recognised that students who have it didn't choose to be the way they are.

ADHD is a condition that is caused by brain chemistry and activity. It is a neurobiological condition. People with ADHD often have difficulty paying attention and concentrating, especially on things that require sustained attention and concentration. The can have problems controlling their emotions and impulses, can rush to finish things or have considerable difficulty waiting their turn. They often ask questions without thinking them through and sometimes make unfortunate comments in front of others.

ADHD is a life-long condition. One never grows out of it but the symptom picture changes over time. Often the impulsivity and high level of activity, if they were initially present, disappear in the teen years. The learning problems associated with ADHD do not go away easily and it is vitally important for them to be addressed in school. As in the case of children on the autistic spectrum, once educators and schools get it correct for children with ADHD they have improved the educational provision of all children.

Understanding is critically important. Adolescents with significant ADHD do not chose to be in trouble with and in conflict with adults. Constant rejection and criticism, constant punishment, and in severe cases expulsion from school is not the answer. Corrective teaching is the answer and appropriate support from specialist teachers is vital.

David J. Carey, Psy.D.
297 Beechwood Court
Stillorgan
Dublin, Ireland
http://www.davidjcarey.com

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Choosing the Right Private School Education

You have made the decision to give your child a private school education. With so many options, how do find the right one to fit your child's needs? The first steps are to consider your priorities, arm yourself with a lengthy list of questions and start setting up appointments. Your child's education is too important not to take the time to choose the perfect fit.

Why Choose a Private School Education?

Those sending their children to private schools have a variety of motives behind their decision. For some the decision is based on moral values and religion. Others feel that a private education offers better academics and want their child in a smaller class that will offer the benefit of more personal attention.

It is important to have a list of education priorities before you start looking for a school. For example, if academics are more important to you than religion, but religion is more important to you than extracurricular activities, have academics be number one on your list, religion be number two on your list and extracurricular activities be number three on your list.

Private School Considerations

As part of choosing the right private school for your child, you will have to go through a process of elimination to get the number of schools you are considering down to a manageable number.

You might want to consider:



Finances. What can you afford to pay for an education at a private school? Ask if there are any financial aid or scholarship programs available to you. In addition, some states, including Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, offer breaks on income taxes if you send your kids to a private school.

Grade Levels. Do you want your child to have the option to stay through high school? Not all private schools offer grades kindergarten through 12.

Location. You will have to decide how far you are willing to drive. As you get closer to selecting a school, you can also inquire if there are any other students at the school who live in your area. You may then be able to carpool.

Questions to Ask

Additional questions to ask include:



Accreditation. Is the school accredited? If so, who is the accreditation body?

Instruction Model. What is the school's education philosophy? Does it have a traditional or alternative approach to education? What is the school's policy on homework, grading and testing?

Service Staff. What kind of staff does the school have? Is there a school nurse on location? Does the school have a psychologist or counselor? Is there a librarian on staff?

Principal or Headmaster Turnover. If the school burns through principals, the school may have a problem.

Teacher Turnover. What is the teacher turnover rate at the school? Typically speaking, private schools have higher teacher turnover rates than do public schools. In addition, smaller private schools have larger turnover than do larger private schools. However, a teacher turnover rate of 40% or more may be an indication of problems at the school.

Plan a Visit

As you get closer to choosing a private school, you should schedule an appointment with your candidate schools' headmaster or principal.


Ask about student attrition. The longer that students stay at a school, the more likely the school is to be well-run.
Ask for names of parents who have children at the school for references.
Are the school's textbooks up to date?
Does the school have enough computers? Does the school use the latest in technology in teaching?
Does the school have programs for parent involvement?
How does the school feel? Are children interacting, smiling and participating?
How does the school qualify their teachers? Does the school offer teachers additional training?
If your child has special needs, what types of programs does the school offer that will help?
Look at the grounds and facilities. How new are the facilities? How well are the facilities and grounds maintained? Is the library well-stocked with books?
What type of relationship does the school have with local businesses and the local community?
When are applications accepted? Is there a waiting list? If so, how long is the waiting list?

Making the Choice

You will have to narrow down your choices to a select few and then visit each school before you make a final decision. Do not get discouraged if the process takes a little longer than you would like. It is important to get an education for your child that matches the your requirements as closely as possible.

For more information on private school, visit the parenting section of Life123.com.

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Public Schools - Our Education Garbage Dump

Suppose a contractor was building a house for you, and for some strange reason he convinced you to build your house on a garbage dump. The house was supposed to cost $150,000 to build, but the contractor is having problems. Every time he tries to lay his foundations, the foundations sink in the earth that has been rotted out by garbage.

So the contractor keeps trying new ways to fortify the earth to hold the foundations. He tries steel rods in the earth. He tries a different kind of concrete. But everything he tries doesn't work because the garbage dump simply won't support any foundation he tries to pour. Every time the contractor tries something new, the price of the house escalates. His "experiments" push the price to $350,000. Of course you are getting disgusted and think maybe the problem is a structural one that can't be fixed -- that you'll never be able to sink a solid foundation on a garbage dump.

The contractor, who doesn't seem to have a waiting list of other customers, keeps saying if you give him another $100,000, then another $100,000, he is sure he'll be able to come up with a way to lay your foundation and build your house. But you are bankrupt by now, so you have to walk away from the house.

The same scenario has been running for the past fifty years in our education garbage dumps called public schools. As the education they're giving our kids gets progressively worse, the educrats and Boards of Education keep whining in unison that they don't have enough money to do a good job, the schools are overcrowded, teachers salaries are too "low," millions are needed to repair the dilapidated schools, and on and on.

"Just give us more money," the educrats whine. "Look at the condition of our schools. See how overcrowded they are. How do you expect to get good teachers if you don't pay them more? All we need is more money, more billions. Then we will teach your children better." It's the same chant, over and over again. It is one of the favorite excuses spewed out by the educational establishment to rationalize the failure of public schools.

The problem is that our public schools are a government-controlled education garbage dump. No matter how much money we pump into them, they will not improve because the foundations of the system are structurally rotten. They will not improve because a government-run system, by its nature, strangles educational quality and innovation.

Innovation only comes from the fierce competition of a free market. That's why our cars, food, and computers, keep improving in quality every year. Every manufacturer who competes for your consumer dollar has to constantly improve his products to convince you to buy from him. Every car or computer maker must prove to you that his product is better, safer, or cheaper than his competitors. The only way he can do this, and maintain your loyalty as a customer year after year, is to live up to his promises. Competition constantly drives the free-market to continually improve quality, competence, and innovation in all the products we buy.

Public schools, in contrast, are government-owned and operated as a monopoly. There is little competition. The schools get their students by force, through compulsory attendance laws. They get their funds by force, through compulsory real estate taxes. If the school is incompetent, it does not go out of business. If the tenured teachers are incompetent, it's almost impossible to fire them.

Most private schools are expensive. Also, parents who struggle to send their kids to private school still have to pay compulsory real estate taxes to "support" public schools. The average family pays almost forty percent of their income in taxes, leaving little extra for private schools. That's why most parents can't afford these schools. The high taxes force both parents into the workforce, making it difficult for one parent to stay at home to home-school their children. As a result, government schools may not have a legal monopoly to educate our kids, but they have a de-facto monopoly, and the educrats know this.

That is why the educrats can experiment on our kids like guinea pigs, trying out every wacko educational theory their teacher colleges dream up. One such theory was the disastrous "whole-language" reading instruction method that turned millions of kids into illiterates. That is their idea of "innovation."

The only problem is that their "innovations" are not tested in the crucible of the free market. Parents are not given the right or ability to accept or reject these "innovations" by public-school commissars. If the educrats' "innovation" doesn't work, and parents think the school is incompetent, the school doesn't go out of business.

To cover their embarrassment at the constant failure of these "innovations," the educrats then blame everyone but themselves. They blame the kids, the parents, "poverty," or "society." Or, they say they need more billions of dollars to try a new variation of the "innovation" that didn't work for the last ten years. Parents can't take their kids out of these failed schools because they can't afford the private schools. The free-market can't punish these public schools for their incompetence and poor results because these schools are an insulated government monopoly and the teachers are protected by tenure.

If government schools ruin children's education and futures with their failed policies, why give them more billions of dollars? In fact, giving public schools more money to continue their education crimes against our kids would be criminal. It would be like giving more money to a drug addict so he could buy more cocaine and do more damage to his brain.

What matters is what the schools teach, how they teach, and if they are held accountable for what they teach. In government schools, there is no accountability. It is only government institutions like public schools that have the audacity to ask for more billions of dollars the worse they get. In effect, they profit from their incompetence.

But the educrats cannot do otherwise. If they don't ask for more money, they can't use money as an excuse, and are admitting failure. If they admit failure, they are admitting the failure of the entire government-school system. Just as the communists in the former Soviet Union could not admit failure, so public-school educrats cannot admit failure. They must make a constant stream of excuses why our children are being turned into illiterates, and why they waste twelve years of our children's lives. They must constantly ask for more billions of dollars to "improve" the system, even though the government-controlled system is beyond repair.

Here's one example of the "value" of giving more money to public schools. In 1984, as a result of a desegregation lawsuit and orders from U.S. District Judge Russell Clark, . . . "Kansas City spent $2 billion building the most expensive school system in the world. Beginning teacher salaries rose from a low of $17,000 to a high of $47,851. Fifteen new schools were constructed and 70 had additions or renovations. The luxurious facilities include a planetarium, a vivarium, greenhouses, a model United Nations wired for language translation, radio and television studios, movie editing and screening rooms, swimming pools, a zoo, a farm, a wildland area, a temperature-controlled art gallery, and 15 computers per classroom. Students can study Suzuki violin, animal science, and robotics. Language instruction spans French to Swahili."

"Despite the extraordinary facilities and massive sums of money, student performance is so low that recently the state had to strip the Kansas City School District of its accreditation. The school district has fewer students and is less integrated that in 1984 when Judge Clark took control of the school district in order to achieve "mathematical racial balance." (Paul Craig Roberts, The Washington Times, Dec., 9, 1999).

This is just one example of many. If a school's competence and teaching methods are not put to the test of free-market competition, if schools are not punished for incompetence by going out of business, if teachers are not punished for incompetence by being fired, no amount of money in the world will improve the schools. Only the free market will.

The best thing we can do for our kids is to shut down the public-school garbage dumps permanently, once and for all. Let each parent pay for their own child's education in a low-cost, competent, vibrant, and fiercely competitive free-market education system.

Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst and syndicated columnist. He is also the author of ?Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children" and ?The Welfare State: No Mercy For the Middle Class.? Contact Information: Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com Email: lbooksusa@aol.com Article Copyrighted c 2007 by Joel Turtel. NOTE: You may post this Article on another website only if you set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel?s email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com

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Special Education Needs Causing Financial Crisis in California Schools

Now, I am all for special education for children with disabilities. I attended school at a time when such children were either put into "special" schools or thrown in with the general student population to sink or swim on their own. It was a terrible inequity. It finally was addressed in the 1970s with a law designed to correct such discrimination by giving these children the civil right to an equal opportunity to learn. The law covered children from birth to age 22, guaranteeing them the right to a free and "appropriate" public education. It is the ambiguous word "appropriate" written into the law that is creating a crisis for the schools in California, according to Nanette Asimov, staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The article cited a situation of one child with a disability. The assigned public middle school offered special college prep classes, daily help from a special education expert, a laptop computer, extra time for tests, the opportunity to temporarily leave class if the child's had an anxiety attack, and a special advocate to smooth over any problems with teachers.

The parents hired a special consultant instead, who found alternative schooling opportunities -- all were private schools and all were out-of-state. They settled on a boarding school in Maine, outside the main city, that had one-tenth of the enrollment of the school population. The one thing this school did not offer was a special education program. The mother said that smaller classrooms and a smaller campus were more important than a special education program. Since the possibility of anxiety attacks was mentioned in the article, no one can truly judge the merit of this situation except the child's physician and/or psychologist.

After the child was placed into the private school, the parents then hired an attorney, who specializes in special education cases, to file papers with the court demanding the California schools pay four years of tuition and family travel costs between California and Maine. Tuition was $30,000 annually. The California schools met the demands.

This is only one such case in the California schools, which may or may not have been justified. The problem is that it is not the only case. In 2005, there were 3,763 California schools children with disabilities that were the focus of formal complaints -- the vast majority of which came from parents. This is triple the number of only ten years ago, and the numbers are growing.

With a cost of almost $40,000 to go to a court hearing and the possibility of an expensive judgment, the California schools attempt to settle cases before they get that far. In 2005, ten percent of the California schools' cases went to a full hearing -- 386 in all. The remaining 90 percent were resolved through confidential settlements. With 700,000 special needs students currently in the California schools and already paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for private placements, the school system is headed for a financial crisis.

In 2004, the California schools received $4.1 billion for special education from the government and local sources. It was still not enough to pay these extra settlement costs, and the California schools had to take $1.6 billion from the regular class budget. Twenty-eight percent of the special education expenditures that year came from the regular education budget.

California schools educators complain that parents who are able to afford an attorney are assured more opportunities for their children than those who cannot afford to do so, creating an inequity between the haves and have-nots. Additionally, special education teachers see benefits to special programs, such as horseback riding therapy, but acknowledge that such parent demands are not education related. California schools parents and educators are at odds.

Parents are making tuition payment demands of the California schools for such programs as private day schools, boarding schools, summer camps, horseback riding therapy, and aqua therapy. Additionally, the California schools are expected to pay for computers, airfare, car rental, hotel stays, meals, new clothing and tailoring for the children, cell phone calls, stamps, gas and tolls, and future round-trip visits from time of enrollment until the children graduate from high school.

In all, the California schools are paying billions of dollars each year for private placements and auxiliary costs. It is creating an inequity for children the civil rights law was passed to protect and a financial crisis for the California schools.

I have to admit that I wanted every opportunity possible for my child to live a happy and normal adult life. I had a special needs child and spent many hours sitting in principals' offices and at the school board demanding that his needs be met. I was thankful that he received access to the available offerings within the public school system.

In my view, however, it is not a question of right or wrong, justified expenditure or not. It is a question of the legislators going back and specifically defining the word "appropriate". Until then, the schools in California are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, which means less opportunities all the way around.

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Patricia has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more on California schools visit California School Rankings and Private School Rankings

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