Reader ruling prompts review of rejected exam support applications

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The State Examinations Commission was re-examining rejected applications for exam support following a High Court ruling quashing a refusal to provide a student with a reader. The proceedings were reported on 27 May 2016.

Mr Justice Seamus Noonan gave the ruling in April 2016. His grounds included the commission’s Independent Appeals Committee’s failure to give “any understandable rationale” for its refusal.

The student in that ruling, represented by Feichin McDonagh SC, subsequently received a reader — an adult exam supervisor who reads examination questions in a way a dyslexic student can understand.

As part of its re-examination of 404 rejected applications, the commission decided that 81 students should receive readers or other reasonable accommodation. Those students had submitted new information at appeal indicating that they met the qualifying criteria.

Four other cases seeking readers or other special accommodation had been initiated. One had settled with the student receiving a reader. Three were due for High Court hearings the following week.

The commission said 260 other cases involved either no new information at appeal or no information indicating that the applicant met the criteria. Those cases remained under review, which was due to conclude on 27 May 2016.