Parents seek legal action over SEN school places
An ITV News investigation has revealed the true scale of the crisis in special educational needs provision across Northern Ireland, England and Wales.
ITV News is shining a spotlight on SEND - or SEN as it’s referred to in Northern Ireland.
Parents here say they are having to take legal action because they can't get their children into a school which meets their specific needs because there are no places.
Karen Marshall’s son and Nicole McKenna’s son have special educational needs and just over a month to the start of the new school year, neither boy has a primary school place.
Karen told UTV: " You're just constantly waiting for that phone call and constantly chasing. It just feels like they are at the bottom of someone's list, in terms of our next step, it is disgusting that it has got to this point, but we're having to go down the legal route."
Nicole told UTV: " You're constantly waiting on the phone ringing to get some good news or trying to contact the Education Authority to get an update you're being palmed off to everybody, you're getting different email addresses, different phone numbers, different names.
"You're being told they're off, they're off on leave, so basically wait until school starts to find out whether or not there is going to any places left for your child, it's just not on."
Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People Chris Quinn said:" We need systemic change, we need to get out of this cycle of year on year placement crisis, our children and our young people and their parents deserve better."
A study published by a group which represents children with special educational needs shows that Nicole and Karen's experiences are not unique.
According to statistics from the SEN Reform Report NI:
It found 66% of respondents here rated the effectiveness of communication with the Education Authority as very poor.
48% of respondents received their child's final statement within the statutory 26-week timeframe.
65% of parents were satisfied with their child's current educational placement.
The difficulties of obtaining SEN school places is not just confined to primary school places it also affects secondary school places in Northern Ireland
In a statement the Education Authority said:" Transformation of the existing special educational needs system is a key priority for the Education Authority."
"We are also committed to ensuring all children and young people with a statement of SEN receive a placement which meets their individual needs and enables them to reach their full potential."
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