‘Vulnerable children would have to travel 60km a day just to get to school’ – a Dublin 15 parent on her ‘crusade’ for a special education school
After close to a decade of fighting for their children’s “right to an education”, the parents of children with special needs in Dublin 15 are celebrating a major victory.
The area will see 12 new special classes after a taskforce made up of parents and school representatives worked with the Department of Education on the recently published ‘Special Education in Dublin 15’ report.
However, the Dublin area is yet to be allocated a second special school, despite years of campaigning.
“I came home from Australia in 2015 with two children with additional needs. I moved into Dublin 15 and was shocked that there was no special school provision in such a large area,” said Síle Parsons.
“I was meeting other parents to try and find a school placement when I realised that there was literally no space for them. I found out there had been no new special schools in the country in 15 years.
“Then it became a sort of crusade of mine.”
Ms Parsons set up the group Autism School D15 to push the Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to set up more special classes.
“At the time, if a child got a recommendation by a psychologist for a special school, it was like a weight around your neck if you lived in D15 – because you knew if you were lucky enough to get a school placement, it would not be within your community,” she said.
"If your child needed a special school, you’d have to travel up to 60km a day to north county Dublin or Kildare.
“These are vulnerable children with complex needs having to travel 30km to and back from school – it didn’t make any logical sense."
In 2019, Danu Community Special School, D15’s only special school to date, was set up.
“Our campaign was successful in 2019 when the Department of Education sanctioned Danu – there have been 20 more schools since,” said Ms Parsons.
"Dublin 15 is the size of Limerick City and there are four or five special schools there. This school is doing the heavy lifing for all the needs of the area and we know there are huge waiting lists every year.
“In 2022, over 20 children were left without secondary school placements at the end of their primary school year. We were able to gather data and find that there needed to be a special class provision of 40 for children moving from primary to secondary to keep on top of the demand.”
Ms Parsons’ second child (13 years old) is one of eighteen students with special needs moving from primary school to secondary school who do not have a school placement this year.
"We were told in 2022 that it would be the last year where that was allowed to happen. Here we are now heading into May of 2026 and we have 18 children who don’t have a place – one of them is my younger son,” she said.
"My son has been within the Irish education system his whole life. He is not a newly diagnosed child, he has been in the system and we knew he would need a secondary education – this shouldn’t happen.”
This year, the Deparment of Education will introduce 430 new special classes and 3,000 additional places nationwide. New special schools will be seen in Balbriggan and Citywest in Dublin, Bray in Wicklow and Monasterevin in Kildare.
“This report provides a strong, evidence‑based framework to support more effective forward planning for special education in Dublin 15," said Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton.
“The taskforce’s work offers valuable learning that can help inform national policy, supporting a more consistent, joined‑up and forward‑looking approach to special education provision across the country.”
Labour councillor for Dublin 15, John Walsh said the report was “long overdue”.
“The report reveals that 40pc of referrals to Children's disability network teams (CDNTs) in the Dublin 15 area are currently on a waitng list. This is a scandal which means that early intervention simply never happens for many children and they are neglected by the system,” he said.
“Earlier this year, Dublin 15 was not included in the latest announcements on new special schools. The Government has to commit to additional special school provision for the Dublin 15 area through the establishment of a new special school.”
“I welcome the recommendations of the report – now the government has to act urgently to implement the recommendations in full and resolve the long running crisis in special education in Dublin 15.”
For parents in Dublin 15, the effort continues as they campaign for a second school in the area.
“We’ve made 21 recommendations. We need to see it happen, it’s not open to interpretation,” said Ms Parsons.
“This report is out on the back of us parents, it’s only here because we made enough noise for it to be published.”