Gaining access to support for children with special educational needs in the early years in Ireland: parental perspectives

ABSTRACT

Ireland has a policy of inclusive education to enable children with special educational needs to access education alongside their peers. The introduction of early assessment procedures to ensure that children receive support and resources on entering formal education has been an important strategy for delivery of this policy. This paper uses data from interviews with parents and from focus groups with professionals involved in assessment to discuss the efficacy of this procedure. The findings suggest that whilst a policy has been adopted, much remains to be done to ensure that provision of assessment and adequate resources is achieved.

KEYWORDS:

• Ireland
• assessment
• early years
• inclusion
• special educational needs
• parents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the National Council for Special Education, Ireland who funded the research reported in this paper.