Thread by @simonmlewis

Why schools can't take the State to court over treatment of children with additional needs. [A very long 🧵] (30ish tweets to start a discussion) #edchatie

1/In this thread, I want to explain the above because there are a number of people who say they advocate for children and their families and schools don't. I want to explain why this isn't the case.

2/I imagine the majority of these advocates know this already so I'm hoping to explain to their clients why schools can't take legal action against the government regarding special education.

3/The education system is set up explicitly to ensure that the Department of Education is not responsible for ANYTHING that happens in the schools they fund. This is served by the Constitution where the government provide FOR education. The capitalised word in important.

4/In other words, they do not provide the education, they give money to private bodies to manage schools. These bodies are known as Boards of Management and they are legally responsible for everything that happens in a school.

5/(There's also another layer between boards and the government to make things even more complex, that's patrons like the Catholic church, ETB, Foras na P., etc. They create another buffer between schools and government)

6/If a parent has a problem in terms of school, they can take a case. However the case can only be taken against the school, not the State. This is why individual schools have to pay for insurance so as a parent you get that in your book bill.

7/A parent can take legal action against a school for a variety of reasons and recently we are seeing cases involving children with additional needs. The case is always taken against the school not the State.

8/In almost every case, the school will argue that they did not have the adequate resources, supports or training to effectively respond to the child in question. Why do none of them have this?

9/Schools are 100% reliant on receiving adequate supports and resources from @ncseirl. The only mechanism schools have to get more support is to appeal their allocation to the NCSE. Research shows over 90% of applications are refused.

10/Training is also supplied by @ncseirl and feedback on this support is not good. On top of this, teachers are not trained specifically to work in special education settings. I have coined this to be a system built on 2G - goodwill and guesswork. It isn't good enough.

11/The vast majority of primary schools receive ZERO therapeutic support. The are no OTs, SLTs, etc working in primary schools directly with children. Schools are given a one off €7K to fund a "multisensory room"

12/To give perspective, to buy a multisensory pod or fully stocked room costs over €20K. Schools scrimp to buy what they can knowing it is the only money they will receive no matter what future kids' needs.

13/It's therefore very easy for a school not to be able to offer any child with additional needs with the services they need, whether that's staffing, resources or therapies.

14/The only way a school can apply for resources is through the NCSE. There is no mechanism to apply to the Department of Education. If a school is unhappy with an allocation, the only mechanism is an appeals system, again through the NCSE.

15/If a school decided to take the Department of Education to court for lack of provision, firstly they would need to fund it. Schools are already underfunded. But let's just say they decided to take a case...

16/The reality is that they would lose because the Department of Education is not responsible for providing any resources to school. If they pushed this further, they would quickly find themselves bankrupt. Legal cases cost a lot.

17/Essentially even if there was infinite money, they would still lose. As I said there are so many buffers between schools and State that the chance of any success would be almost zero.

18/Conversely, it's very easy to take a school to court because there are no buffers in the way between a family and a board of management.

19/This makes it relatively easy for any budding solicitor to win a case against a school when the needs of a child can't be met in a primary school. That's not a criticism, it's just the way it is.

20/This is why you'll see regular articles in local and national papers where schools end up being taken to court by families. You'll never read about a family taking the State to court for failure to care for additional needs.

21/The problem here is that nothing will change in the system and there will be no winners (except legal people) unless the State is held responsible for what happens in schools.

22/If this happened, we would see systematic changes such as proper training, facilities, money, resources, support, etc. for all children. People talk about the EPSEN Act as the solution here and they may be right.

23/Legally getting this to happen will require a test case. It will cost millions as the State will bring this all the way to the bitter end. It will also take years and years.

24/Ultimately nobody has the money and the time because by the time there would be a positive outcome, it would be too late for the person's child.

25/In terms of money, the only person that could take a case would be someone with nothing to lose - no house, no money, etc.

26/If the advocates were really serious about helping families of children with additional needs, they could do this through free legal aid if they had a family that qualified.

27/I may be wrong on that but I'm pretty sure I'm not. Until I see an advocacy group or legal person taking legal action against the State, I can't take them seriously. It's too easy to blame schools.

28/I am willing to work with any solicitor, advocacy group or anyone else who can bring the government to task for their neglect of children with AEN. I have spoken to many of them.

29/Unfortunately schools can't take the State to court over AEN but individual families can if they are supported by a brave legal team that will pick the hard battles. I wonder if there's a legal team out there who will. [End 🧵] (I'd love to hear all opinions on this)