Public consultation opens for Special Education Act review

Members of public are being invited to have their say on the way special needs education is provided in Ireland.

A public consultation process has opened today as part of the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004, which provides for the education of children aged under 18 years with special educational needs.

The Act states that: “A child with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs unless the nature or degree of those needs of the child is such that to do so would be inconsistent with – (a) the best interests of the child as determined in accordance with any assessment carried out under this Act, or (b) the effective provision of education for children with whom the child is to be educated.”

At the end of last year, Minister for Special Education Josepha Madigan, launched of the EPSEN Act review and the establishment of a steering group and advisory group to oversee the process.

Ms Madigan said the purpose of the public consultation process is to “hear from as many different voices as possible”, adding: “It is an important part of the review that the first hand experiences of current and former school students and their parents are recorded.”

“The purpose of the consultation is to ensure that legislation on education for students with additional needs is up-to-date, fully operational, and reflective of the lived experiences of students and families,” she said.

“This is about ensuring that the views of persons with disabilities are fully considered in policy making. The review will help us to understand what aspects of the law is working well and whether aspects of it should be amended. This is about listening.”

As part of the public consultation, the department is launching a series of online surveys for parents and students, as well as the professionals who work with students with additional needs.

The consultation will continue until Spring 2023 and can be access via the department’s website,  gov.ie/epsenreview.

The department said it will be engaging with schools, parents’ groups, students’ organisations, providers of further and higher education and of day services, as well as with school communities, education partners and professional bodies, to ensure that a “wide cohort of people are aware of and have the opportunity to have their views heard”.

The CEO of Inclusion Ireland, Derval McDonagh, said her organisation is calling for a change of the language that is used in the Act. 

She said the Act is “rife with language like special”, and argued “there’s nothing special about wanting your child to access their right to education in their local school”.

Inclusion Ireland is calling for the Act to be renamed the “Inclusive Education Act”, saying an emphasis must be placed on designing educational supports to meet individual needs.

"The UNCRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) says that without exception there should be inclusive education for children," Ms McDonagh told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

"And the EPSEN Act allows for a lot of exceptions to that. The EPSEN Act has language like ‘where appropriate’, or ‘if possible, but we need to see that without exception - no matter what support needs a chid might happen to have, that they should have the right to go to their local school with their siblings.”