A MOTHER who is desperately fighting to get her child into a special school today claims: “The whole system is just broken from the very bottom up.”
It comes as shocking new figures show that more than 14,000 children have been waiting longer than legally allowed to have an assessment of needs for disability with the Dail told: “The State is failing children and families.”
Under the law, the State must provide an assessment of needs check on children within six months of an application being made so that they can then get the appropriate care and support they need.
However, new data from the HSE show that 14,221 children were overdue their assessments at the end of 2024 – an increase of more than 5,000 kids from the end of 2023.
The average wait time for these vital checks for children now stands at two years.
The figures provided to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns highlight that the wait list show no sign of improving as demand dramatically outstrips supply.
Some 4,162 assessments of need were carried out in 2024 with 10,690 applications for checks received by the HSE.
Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan today challenged the Taoiseach on the issue as he claimed: “The State is failing children and their families.”
Deputy O’Callaghan told how families are being forced to take legal cases against the State to move up the wait list with law firms cashing in on these cases while the taxpayer is left to foot the bill.
Mum Charlotte Cahill told the Irish Sun that she was one of those forced to take legal action to get an assessment of needs for her daughter Cyra.
Little Cyra Sadilua was diagnosed with autism at 18 months and has been fighting for everything all her life from health checks to services and a school place.
Cyra’s mum said they were forced to pay for a private assessment of needs, which resulted in her daughter being prescribed medicine that left her in hospital.
Since then, she has battled with the HSE for assessments of needs checks that have repeatedly come back with mistakes including the report having another child’s name on it.
Charlotte has since taken legal proceedings to get her daughter the checks and care she needs.
It’s just magical how she has grown and my concern is that she will go backwards without a school place.”
Mum Charlotte
She told the Irish Sun: “The whole system is just broken from the very bottom up. Just getting the assessment of needs is a nightmare.
“The only way you are getting it now is by going through the legal system – that in itself costs a lot of money for parents that they don’t have because they are already paying a small fortune for therapies because they can’t get the services they need.”
Charlotte has helped to set up a group called Fighting for Appropriate School Places in Tallaght, Dublin where parents are coming together to campaign for education for their kids.
Cyra has already had 22 applications to schools for this September rejected because they are too full.
She had to get a one year extension in her current special pre-school because no primary school would take her due to a lack of availability.
FAMILY FEARS
Mum Charlotte told how her daughter regressed during eight weeks last year where she had no school to go to and with the family terrified that this will happen again if she does not get a school place soon.
She told the Irish Sun: “With children with additional needs, the majority of their schooling at this stage is more teaching them independence and life skills.
“She is absolutely flourishing in pre-school. She is brushing her teeth by herself. She’s able to hold a spoon and eat by herself. She is able to sit at the table with the other children and be social.
“It’s just magical how she has grown and my concern is that she will go backwards without a school place.
“There was an eight week gap where we were fighting to get that third year in pre-school and during those eight weeks Cyra massively regressed.
“Every single morning she would come down stairs, get her school bag and be ready to go out the door and when I would try to explain that we’re not going to school she would get so upset and she would hit herself and wouldn’t come out of her room.
FIGHT TO FIX SYSTEM
“At the fifth or sixth week, we ended up in A&E with her because she was totally back to injuring herself.
“It was really, really painful to watch that happen. We finally got her back to school and she went back to being a happy bubbly girl and I am absolutely petrified of what is to come if we don’t get a school place again this year.”
Charlotte is urging the Government to fix the system that has been broken for decades as families continue to have to fight and campaign for the basic right to an education.
Charlotte said: “I met a lady at a protest last year and she said her daughter is 22 years old and she said ‘Charlotte I was standing here 20 years ago fighting for the exact same things’.
“20 years on and we are still fighting for the exact same things – a child’s rights. A right to an education – this isn’t just want or need.”
In response to questions from Soc Dems’ TD Cian O’Callaghan, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he wants therapies for children with additional needs to be moved out of the HSE and into schools – particularly in special schools.
He said there are issues around the recruitment of staff for the sector and also claimed that a High Court ruling on the assessments of needs in 2022 has had an impact on the service which he believes needs to be dealt with through legislation.
