Confusion over Assessment of Need (AON) reform 'unacceptable' – Kildare South TD

Sinn Féin spokesperson for Special Education, South Kildare TD Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh, has called on Ministers Norma Foley and Hildegarde Naughton to urgently clarify yesterday’s announcement on changes to the Assessment of Need (AON) process, warning that the Government’s approach risks deepening chaos in special education and placing impossible pressure on already overburdened teachers.

Deputy Ní Raghallaigh said: “Yesterday, during Sinn Féin’s motion on the Assessment of Need crisis, Minister Foley announced that children will no longer require a formal diagnosis to access a special class or special school placement. Instead, a new ‘educational assessment’ will be introduced to determine eligibility.

“The Minister must immediately clarify who will be carrying out these assessments. Will it be teachers? Will it be SENOs? Such a fundamental shift cannot be floated without any detail.

“It is simply not acceptable for this responsibility to be pushed onto teachers or principals. They do not want, nor should they be asked, to decide whether a child receives learning supports.

“That must remain the role of qualified psychological and disability professionals. The Department cannot attempt to shift responsibility onto schools to mask years of failure to build proper assessment capacity.”

Deputy Ní Raghallaigh said that Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) already wield “enormous and unfair power” when allocating special class placements, often overruling the advice of qualified clinicians.

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If SENOs became the sole decision-makers on access to special education settings, she argued, children would be left without the safeguard of professional psychological input, an issue she said was “deeply concerning.”

The Sinn Féin TD said it also risks creating a two-track system, where one process is used for school placement and another for therapeutic supports.

“That is the opposite of what an integrated approach should look like”, she said.

Criticising the lack of coordination within Government, the Kildare South TD added: “Minister Foley made these remarks without the Minister for Education present. It is unclear whether Minister Naughton or her officials were even briefed.

“The Government is scrambling to give the appearance of action. Instead, it is generating confusion, fear and mistrust. This is not coherent policy - this is panic.”