Almost 120 children with special educational needs (SEN) may not have a school place for the new term, it has emerged.
MLAs were briefed by the Education Authority (EA) on Tuesday, where they heard the EA could not guarantee all of those children would receive a place before the start of the new school year.
Of statemented children due to go into P1 this year, 73 have not yet secured a place.
There are also 17 children without a place in nursery and 28 without a place in Year 8.
The number of children with statements has risen substantially by more than 9,000 from 2018 to 2024.
Almost 1,500 new and additional places have been created for September 2024 with 63 in special schools and 107 in specialist provision in mainstream schools (SPIM) providing extra support to pupils with additional needs in primaries and post-primaries.
In the 2022-23, there were almost 7,000 pupils in 39 special schools and a further 3,200 were in specialist provision in mainstream schools.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said it remains unclear how the EA plans to find 120 new places, and there are no guarantees that this problem will not be replicated next year.
“I welcome the fact that places have been allocated to hundreds of children who would otherwise have gone without this September. However, this has only been due to the public pressure from families who would not allow their children to be left behind,” he said
“What is clear is that Stormont needs to urgently invest in SEN to ensure children’s rights are fulfilled and that they can realise their full potential. This must include pay and grading review for education support workers and the offer of proper contracts for some 25,000 classroom assistants employed on a temporary basis.”
Alliance MLA Kate Nicholl said the annual crisis in special school placement is having devastating consequences for families.
“It is to be welcomed new family support link officers have been put in place to work with unplaced children, but there are just three of these staff in post for a caseload of 120 and, regardless of the ratio, there is a limit to how much help they can provide if there ultimately aren’t enough suitable school places for every SEN child,” she added.
“Our special schools have been over-capacity and under-resourced for far too long.
“We are failing these young people and depriving them of the education every child should have by right.”
The Education Authority has been contacted for comment.
