A Monaghan solicitors firm is currently taking "hundreds" of cases against state bodies in a fight to get the appropriate school place and therapies for children with special needs. Healy Law is taking the cases on behalf of local families who have been unable to get what their children with additional needs are entitled to on their own. on their own.
Under the Disabilities Act, children are entitled to an education and any other support necessary to lead full and fulfilling lives. The process begins with getting a statement of need report for your child. This is supposed to be followed up with a service statement, which, recommends what supports the child needs, for example, speech and language or occupational therapy. From those two documents, an appropriate school place and the relevant therapies should be made available to families.
Barry Healy says "by and large" the reports are wrong, the supports not available, and many local children and their families are being failed by the state: "Thew HSE are ob;liged to do an assessment of your child and determine whether they are someone who is entitled to the benefits of the Disability Act. And, by and large all of the reports are incorrect," Barry Healy explained, "A lot of reports for argument's sake, initially didn't have any assessment whatsoever of the educational needs of children and the service statement is probably a more important document in many ways because what the service statement sets out is what supports they should get but, most of the service statements are very bland and they say well, they're entitled to speech therapy, they're entitled to psychological services, they should get education but they don't specify when, where or how this will happen."
