AsIAm welcomes Publication of the EPSEN Act Review, but Highlights Need for Urgent Reforms to Support Autistic Children and Families
AsAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity, welcomes the publication of the Review of the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act by the Department of Education earlier this week.
The findings of this review have been long-awaited by Autistic people and families across Ireland. The publication of this Review offers a pathway for the Department to modernise Ireland’s legal framework which underpins our education system to align with standards on inclusive education set out under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Whilst we welcome that many of the Review’s findings and recommendations commit to building an inclusive education system for all students, we are concerned that several key recommendations are referenced as part of wider reforms within the Education Act as opposed to the EPSEN Act. These include the role of statutory Student Support Plans and the introduction of independent mediation services.
Whilst we support comprehensive reform of the Education Act to reflect the transition towards an inclusive education system under the UNCRPD, incorporating these vital and urgently needed supports into wider education law reform risks significant delay, when these measures can help families to access school places and to get the right educational supports to meet their child’s rights at the right time.
This potential delay which we have highlighted throughout this process risks undoing all the good work that has gone into this review process, which received over 12,000 submissions from community members, families, organisations across both civil society and the education sector – all sharing their lived experiences, insights and expertise regarding the education system, how children are supported at school, and their views on how our education system should support all students in the future.
Our community cannot wait years for these measures to be put in place, when families are telling us that they have to constantly battle to both access an appropriate school place and the supports they need to meet their child’s education rights. For this reason, we call on the Department of Education to introduce these measures within the lifetime of this Government.
AsIAm will be publishing an Explainer on the EPSEN Review later this week which covers these issues in more detail. For more information on this report, including Easy-to-Read Reviews and Recommendations, click here.
