{"id":562846,"date":"2026-07-01T05:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/562846\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:12:16","slug":"boy-with-educational-needs-receives-18-rejections-for-special-school-place-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/562846\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy with educational needs receives 18 rejections for special school place \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 12-year-old boy with special educational needs has received 18 rejections for a special school place, the D\u00e1il has been told. <\/p>\n

Labour leader Ivana Bacik <\/a>said party Cllr Alison Field<\/a>, the new deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, has had to resort to social media to highlight the \u201congoing failure of the State\u201d to provide her son James with a school place. <\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, James received rejections from two more schools. That brings the family\u2019s grand total up to 18,\u201d said Bacik. <\/p>\n

\u201cJames, a vulnerable child, has been rejected 18 times, refused care and refused an education. In Ali\u2019s words, he has been on the department\u2019s books since he was five. He is 12 now. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Education <\/a>has had seven years to provide him with a secondary school place … The family is banking on one last school, hoping for what Ali describes as a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dublin Bay South <\/a>TD also referenced the case of six-year-old Christian Walsh, who is autistic and non-verbal, and said this September would mark his third year without a primary school place. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis mother says most of her days are now spent fighting for a basic right that every child should enjoy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Bacik said Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton <\/a>and Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin <\/a>had repeatedly assured parents that every child will have a place. <\/p>\n

\u201cParents have heard these promises before. Many have had to become experts in advocacy and public policy because all they are getting are delays, confusion and copy-and-paste refusal letters,\u201d she said. \u201cMany now say they have no hope left.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, the Taoiseach said every child who requires a special school placement and has notified the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) \u201cwill have a place in September\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pat Rabbitte: ‘you\u2019re not going to get a broad left alliance’<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the target. We have already announced 580 new special classes, 378 at primary level and 202 at post-primary, that will open this September,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, there are 60 new inclusive special classes, with the latest tranche of five additional classes announced yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin said the scale of demand for special education places and the Government<\/a>\u2019s response to it over the past six years had been \u201cexceptional\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cBalance and perspective are required here. Thousands of children are being provided for every year and additional places are being found,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The NCSE received applications from about 7,860 children for a special placement when the portal was opened earlier this year, he said, more than twice the number who did so in advance of the current school year. <\/p>\n

Of those 7,860, about 75 per cent were already enrolled in a school but were seeking special provision in addition to the placement in a given school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 12-year-old boy with special educational needs has received 18 rejections for a special school place, the D\u00e1il…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,4771,553,6,29353,19,17,9170,9171,11,12,15,16,5765,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-562846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-headlines","tag-hildegarde-naughton","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ivana-bacik","tag-labour-party","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116843010872545172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}