NI Education: Special Needs Plans for Schools 'Action Needed Now'

“We need to act now'', the school's headteacher has said of plans to provide places for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in County Tyrone schools.

Dixon Primate Sean Dillon told BBC News NI the school hopes to open additional support classes for pupils with autism in 2025.

He said people needed to prepare before they were “back against the wall.”

In 2023, hundreds of children will begin summer vacation not knowing which school they will go to when the new school year begins.

A senior Education Agency (EA) official has warned that “it will be difficult and difficult to place all children in SEN” this summer.

Dale Hanna, Stormont School Board MLA, said the EA was considering a number of solutions to create more schools.

“It will be difficult and challenging to place all the children by September 1,” he said.

“There will still be many students and families whose whereabouts have not been confirmed come June 30th.”

EA's Donna Allen told MLAs that the authority had purchased a number of mobile classrooms from County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland to create more space in schools.

“We are considering all possible options and nothing is being ruled out,” she said.

Janice Scallon from the Department for Education also told the committee that more than 100 schools were refusing to create new specialized classes for children with SEN.

Mr Primate Dixon already has three specialist support classes for children with SEN, including pupils with autism from Years 1 to 4.

However, the school hopes to open a separate specialized class for autistic students from fifth grade onwards in 2025.

But Mr Dillon told BBC NI's Sunday Politics that the school needed decision and support from the authorities before it could open classes.

“We are seeing a significant increase in the number of children with unique needs,” he said.

“When I came to this school 20 years ago, we had three children in special education, and now we have 72.

“Of these, 32 children are in a specialized support center within the school.

“A wide range of expertise, knowledge and commitment has been developed within the school to meet the needs of every child.

“It takes a long time for us to say to a parent, 'We can't meet your child's needs.'

“That rarely happens.”

The school's current Autism Support Center serves younger students in grades one through four.

Mr Dillon said the school now plans to establish a second autism support center for older students from fifth grade onwards.

“Every time we look at these numbers, regardless of the other kids we want to have here, we know that by September 2025, we won't have the provision for them to be in our schools.” he said.

“Parents can live without the anxiety of wondering where their children will be in September 2025. “As things stand, there is an emergency situation where many children transferring from P4 cannot be placed here at Primate Dixon. Because there's a big risk.”

“We want to avoid that at all costs.”

According to the EA, since 2018 the number of children declared with SEN has increased by 50% and the number of pupils in special schools has increased by 25%.

More than 68,000 pupils in Northern Ireland have some form of special educational needs, representing around 20% of the school population.

Almost 27,000 people have a SEN statement. SEN is a legal document that sets out a child's needs and the support they should receive at school.

Sunday Politics airs on Sundays at 10:00 BST on BBC One NI and iPlayer.