Angry parents began a 24-hour sleep-out at Leinster House on Wednesday as their autistic children do not have suitable school places.
Over 200 parents began protesting at 2pm on Wednesday, which is World Autism Day, as many plan to sleep out overnight. Dozens held signs and photographs of their children as they chanted “let them in”, pleading with the Government to make more school places available for autistic kids.
Conor Coady said the only reason his son Harry doesn’t have a school place is that “he has additional needs”. The five-year-old should be starting school this coming September but has been refused by the seven schools that are suitable in their home county, Waterford.
The father told the Irish Mirror: “We don’t have that many schools we can apply to down there and he has been rejected from all of them. The reason my son isn’t starting school in September is because he has additional needs, and it’s not just my son it’s a nationwide issue.
“It doesn’t seem right to me when my daughter, who is neurotypical, has her choice of school. He gets refused for various different reasons, usually it’s a space issue. He was 19 on one waiting list and another school didn’t even put him on the list he was so far down.”
Róisín O’Donoghue’s daughter Willow has been on the waitinglist for an autism diagnosis and an assessment of need for three years, and still hasn’t gotten either. She said: “We have been on private and public waitlists and not a budge as it’s inundated with children waiting on the same thing. Privately we have been on waitlists since last September.
“Because of that we can’t apply for placements, I have applied under the CDNT’s (Children's Disability Network Team) advice that she will be seen by September but that hasn’t happened yet. So I either have to do an extra year of playschool with her or accept a place in a school that isn’t suitable, and that’s not fair.”
Róisín fears her young daughter will regress if she doesn’t get a school place this coming September. She said: “She gets overstimulated and overwhelmed really easily, lots of meltdowns, when meltdowns happen she can harm herself and others around her but completely not her choice, this world is too much it wasn’t made for her.
“She has the kindest soul, is a messer at heart, she wants to be part of the system and make friends. She wants to go to a big school but because of the system she has that’s not a possibility right now.” Danielle Cleary, from Waterford, is also worried that her non-verbal son Theo will miss out on a vital year of education, as he has not received a place for this coming school year.
He is five years old and due to start this September, but will be doing an extra year in preschool as he has no Junior Infants place. She said: “He is in a mainstream preschool because I couldn’t get him into an early intervention unit and there was no spaces available. Now we have had to make the decision that he has to do a third year. My child is of school going age and he is not allowed to go.
“I am going to be standing here next year fighting the same fight to get my child into junior infants. It is not going to go away until something is implemented and I’m not willing to stand back and give up my child’s education because someone in there will not make the decision and not put the numbers together.”
Emily McPhillips-Sheridan, from Cavan, joined the protest yesterday as she knows what it is like to not have a suitable school place. The 20-year-old, who is autistic, didn’t get a suitable place until she was in sixth year.
She said: “I struggled so so much throughout school. I was always overwhelmed, I experienced a lot of panic attacks because I wasn’t in the right environment. When I finally got a suitable school place it made the world of difference. I felt safe, I could thrive, and I felt supported.
“I was then able to sit my Leaving Certificate and wasn’t missing out on my education, it really made such a difference and that’s why I am here today, to advocate and stand with these families.”
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