Special education reforms in Ireland: Changing systems, changing schools

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Special Education Reforms in
Ireland: Changing Systems,
Changing Schools
DATE
4 September 2020
VENUE
Educational Studies
Association of Ireland
Annual Conference 2020
AUTHORS
Neil Kenny, Selina McCoy,
Georgiana Mihut

www.esri.ie @ESRIDublin #ESRIevents #ESRIpublications@ESRIDublin #ESRIevents #ESRIpublications www.esri.ie2 4 September 2020
Research Questions
i. How have historical policy and legislative reforms
shaped provision for students with Special
Education Needs (SEN)?
ii. What are the key challenges of current provision for
students with SEN and what have been the impacts
of greater school autonomy for both schools and
students?
iii. What do we know about effective systems for
special education funding?
iv. Can any learnings be identified from the Irish
system - the implications of increasing autonomy
for schools in how resources are utilised?

i. Historical Context
Provision for young people with SEN in recent
decades has moved from a system of segregated
provision to one in which “… the provision of
inclusive education is mandatory, except where
this would not be in the best interests of the child
…” (Meaney et al. 2005, 209).
• SERC (1993)
• UNCRC (1989) – Rights based provision
• EPSEN Act (2004)

Most recent reforms
• New Allocation Model (2017): more equitable,
rights-based approach, without the need for a
diagnosis of disability.
• School Inclusion Model (SIM) Pilot (2019):
integrated package of education and health
supports which aims to build schools’ capacity
to include children with additional needs and to
provide other supports for students.

ii. Challenges in current provision
• Gleeson (2010): reform occurs in a dislocated
and siloed manner, with funding being allocated
within a partnership model, but within isolated
systems.
• Lack of confidence among pre-service teachers
in their knowledge and ability to implement
inclusive practices in schools (NCSE, 2017).
• High levels of expenditure, but not
disproportionately large. Lack of precision in
allocation of resources.

Challenges in current provision Contd.
• Inappropriate use of special education teaching
resources (O’Brien, 2019).
• Students with complex needs being placed on
reduced timetables – little reporting or monitoring
until recently (Brennan and Browne, 2019).
• Students in special classes “are physically located in
mainstream schools, the extent to which inclusion
is taking place is questionable”- serve to provide
the appearance of inclusion within schools but are
potentially side stepping the issue (Banks, McCoy,
2017).

iii. Effectiveness of SEN funding systems
SEN funding effectiveness is difficult to evaluate.
• Comprehensive - Changes to funding systems are
typically accompanied by other SEN reforms (e.g.
Finland, Ireland).
• Incremental - Funding changes are often
implemented gradually (e.g. Netherlands, Ireland).
• Criteria? - There is no consensus on what criteria
should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of
SEN funding. As a result, the effect on
identification rates has been used to gauge
effectiveness.

Effective Funding Systems Contd.
• Use of diagnosis in resource allocation is
problematic: eg. impact of labelling on
expectations (McCoy et al. 2016).
• Impact on school access/soft barriers.
• Address potential perverse effects through
increase in accountability measures embedded
within the system.

iv. Maximising potential of school autonomy
• Links between school autonomy and students’
learning outcomes are inconsistent and open to
interpretation (Keddie 2015).
• ‘Domestication’ (Jeffers, 2010): influencing how
the new allocation model is being interpreted
and enacted within schools.
• Cultures and understanding of roles (and their
related expectations) are important influences
in how reforms are practically implemented in
schools (Gleeson et al. 2002; Jeffers 2010).

Maximising potential of school autonomy
• At odds with many countries moving towards a
combination of increased school autonomy and
intensified accountability (Neeleman 2019).
• Are academic focused standardised
assessments of outcome (such as PISA)
appropriate?
• Importance of holistic outcomes: learner
appreciation & engagement with education,
improved personal and social skills, increased
self-esteem, and developing a sense of
belonging and an overall purpose in life.

v. Conclusions
• Reform goals are ambitious and admirable.
Movement towards rights based access.
• Ongoing evaluation - to ensure smooth
implementation, to examine the intended and
potentially unintended consequences from a
process of ‘domestication’ at the school level.
• Centrality of sufficient, and appropriate,
accountability measures to ensure resources
and provision best meet student need.

Publication:
“Special Education Reforms in Ireland: Changing Systems,
Changing Schools”
Neil Kenny, Selina McCoy, Georgiana Mihut
Forthcoming (2020)
International Journal of Inclusive Education
(special issue: SEN Resourcing across Countries)

Special education reforms in Ireland: Changing systems, changing schools

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