Colman Noctor: We need to bridge the post-school gap for children with additional needs

Many students and parents long for the day they complete their educational journey and no longer have to be reminded of their struggles. However, as the completion of their school journey approaches, a new set of worries and concerns often emerges. As challenging as navigating the school environment is, the adult world, without familiar supports and relationships, can be equally daunting.

Last week saw the publication of a large-scale study commissioned by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). Titled Paths, Tracks, Gaps, and Cliffs, it examined the school experience and levels of preparation of school leavers with diverse additional needs. The study found that students preferred
individualised, timely support and were critical that supports were often difficult to access and required a ‘fight’ to secure.

As a parent of children with additional needs, I’m all too familiar with the hoops one must jump through to secure resources.

I recall speaking with now-senator Tom Clonan some years ago and remarking on how many parents of children with additional needs become impressive
advocates for their children. He replied “They have no choice but to be vocal advocates because if they are not, their child will lose out.”

My sister is one such example. Over the past 17 years, she has become, by default, a staunch advocate for her two autistic sons. She has to fight, campaign, and relentlessly pursue decision-makers to secure the support her boys need.

Post-school options

Many of the students interviewed for the NCSE study reported a significant struggle in deciding what to do after school. They felt that official or standard sources of advice, such as career guidance, teachers, and the CAO, were not tailored to their needs.

I’m often contacted by parents looking for advice on how to get support for their child with additional needs. But I can do little to help because the scarcity of
post-school options for young people, especially those graduating from special schools, seriously limits their options.

The study also raised concerns about the earlier allocation of third-level places, which applies to the broader Leaving Certificate community. It’s difficult to justify that they will be offered a place in mid-August and required to organise accommodation and support before they commence their third-level journey three or four weeks later. This does little to allow these young people and their families to adjust to a major life transition.

The young adults in the NCSE study said schools could do better to prepare them for adult life, independent living and career decisions.

While I believe this criticism to be valid, I have compassion for staff in mainstream schools. There is already considerable pressure to cover a crowded curriculum — the space for additional life skills is unavailable to most.

The expectations of parents and students also play a role. The drive to achieve maximum CAO points, which has become the dominant goal of education, means even teachers and school communities who want to include more practical skills in the curriculum would likely encounter significant challenges from families, especially if there are no CAO points for these classes.

The focus on CAO points has usurped some essential features of a good education.

Due to the dominance of screen-based childhoods, life skills are being eroded, and there is a huge need for young people to develop practical life skills.

The ability to communicate and connect seems to be becoming more challenging with each new generation.

If the sole metric of CAO points is to measure educational success, crucial life skills will be undervalued.

While this is especially true for young people with additional needs, including more practical life skills content in the curriculum would allow every young person to benefit from it.

Impact of social inequality

Not surprisingly, the study found that family background played a significant role in the likelihood of young people applying for post-school courses and DARE (Disability Access Route to Education) applications, with students from more highly educated families being more likely to apply. Social inequality is an ongoing struggle in our education system, and in almost every published report, social disadvantage is a dominant feature. While there have undoubtedly been efforts to level the playing field, we are still far from achieving it.

In his 1999 book The Schools Our Children Deserve, educationalist Alfie Kohn famously commented that the best predictor of a school’s standardised test scores is the size of the houses nearby. Kohn emphasised that family wealth and community resources largely determine student outcomes. Unfortunately, 26 years later, this still seems to ring true.

Outside the school environment, the young people in the study highlighted that staffing shortfalls in some HSE-supported post-school programmes delayed or
disrupted transitions to various programmes, impacting their personal and learning progress and social engagement. In some cases, this is due to staffing levels; in other cases, it is due to unnecessary bureaucracy.

I have worked in various Irish universities for over 15 years and can attest that requests for additional support have increased every year. This is partly due to a rise in proficiency in carrying out educational assessments, which highlight these issues. The increase in assessments is a positive development as it paves the way for many more young people to attend third-level institutes and receive the support they need in that setting. However, these learning supports require resources and investment, which can take time.

I do not doubt that third-level institutions will improve over the coming years, as inclusivity is a priority for many universities. However, until those supports are established, young people will continue to struggle.

We can hopefully learn from studies and improve our infrastructure to create more effective pathways to post-school education, enabling young people with additional needs to thrive.

The NCPE study highlights the need to equip school-leaving students with more practical skill sets and move away from associating entry into third-level education solely with CAO points. If young people could use other metrics to make a case for why they might be suited to specific post-school programmes, then this would allow for more diverse skills to be recognised outside of those measured in a high-stakes exam in June of their final year.

I teach undergraduate mental health nursing. If a student were to engage in volunteer work during their school years with a local mental health organisation and received positive feedback from that organisation as to their suitability for a role in mental health nursing, surely this is as worthy of consideration for a place on an undergraduate training programme as their result, for example, in their Leaving Cert geography exam?

To meaningfully support young people with diverse learning needs, we must design a system that more effectively acknowledges their diverse talents.

This approach has to be preferable to investing in the current system, which for these students, seems not fit for purpose.

• Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist.