Call for additional autism class at Ballyforan NS

The provision of an additional autism class at Ballyforan National School has been called for by an Independent councillor.

Councillor Emer Kelly has called on Roscommon County Council to write to the Minister for Education and the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to outline the urgent need for an additional autism class at the South Roscommon school.

“There is huge demand for spaces in this area and they are not being resourced,” Cllr Kelly told a recent meeting of the Athlone Municipal District.

She told the meeting that the issue has been on-going for the last couple of years and the school is not getting enough clarity on the situation.

“They find themselves in a very unstable position in relation to the provision of special education and the need for an additional autism class,” said Cllr Kelly.

“The school, board of management and everyone in the community is calling for an additional special education class in the school. All the staff have the relevant qualifications and the special education team within the school all have their post grad in special education, and full support from all relevant parties.”

She explained that for some years the principal of the school has been working very closely with the relevant people, investigating establishing the special class, not alone for South Roscommon but also in the parish community which crosses over to the Galway area.

“The school had expressed an interest in setting up a class in September 2024 with a view to an additional class in 2025 and another in 2026, but due to the limited availability of space at the school, three classes weren’t going to be an option based on the site requirements,” said Cllr Kelly. “The management happily agreed to take two classes, one in 2024 and the other in 2025, and they had meetings with relevant parties who were supportive, but now there is a difficult situation. The current autism class is full and they can’t fill the local demand that comes to them and there are pupils from outside the catchment area who want to enrol in the class. Some pupils are in the mainstream setting but can’t get an assessment even though they are in urgent need of it,” she said.

She said that the school will do whatever is needed to accommodate an additional class.

“It’s not fair that these children don’t have access to education because a class is not sanctioned in a rural school, and in addition to that, the school requires some repair works,” said Cllr Kelly.

“Can we put that in a letter as well? The roof on the school is in need of repair but hasn’t been granted funding, although they were granted funding for solar panels, but can’t draw them down until the other repairs are done.”

Cllr Laurence Fallon said he was delighted with the motion and the issue had been going on a long time. “It seems we are going backward and there seems to be a slight change in policy, and it should be looked at, because people in rural Ireland are as entitled to the same services as anywhere else,” said Cllr. Fallon. “Let’s hope we can get this as soon as possible.”

Cllr Tony Ward said he supported the motion and was conscious of children in a catchment area, having facilities in that area, with their friends and neighbours there.

“There is a need here and it has to be addressed, and I know that Deputy Martin Daly has arranged to meet with the school and try and address the issues there,” said Fianna Fail’s Cllr. John Keogh.

He also commented about the roof repairs and the solar panel situation.

“Hopefully my colleagues in Fine Gael will liaise with their Oireachtas members as well to try and resolve this issue,” said Cllr Keogh.

Cllr Valerie Duffy said she was happy to support and follow up to get an update on policy on the provision of autism classes in rural Ireland to see if there has been a change in policy.

“It is important to have everything as close to home as possible and I support Cllr Kelly and hope we get an answer,” said the Fine Gael councillor, who seconded the Kelly proposal.

*Published under the Local Democracy Scheme