Who is popular today?

Months of school closures. Limited access to remote learning. A screeching halt to vital therapeutic interventions. The true scale of learning loss for children due to Covid-19 disruption is anyone’s guess. Most experts, however, acknowledge that those who have lost out most are young people with special or additional needs.
Leading autism campaigner Adam Harris says there is an urgent need for a long-term study into the effects of Covid school closures on children with special educational needs.
Harris says the National Council for Special Education should carry out a longitudinal project of at least five years to analyse the impact.
The chief executive of autism charity AsIAm says: “The education system failed those in need of the greatest level of support for the better part of a 12-month period.
“We need a long-term study to see how this has influenced children. The Department of Education should engage with the relevant expertise to design a longitudinal study that will effectively measure outcomes and impacts.”
In the meantime, experts acknowledge that catch-up programmes of some kind are crucial.
Harris and other disability campaigners are lobbying the Department of Education into doubling the hours of this year’s summer provision programme for special educational needs (SEN) pupils, from 40 hours to 80 hours.
The extended school year for children with extra needs usually runs in the month of July, but for 2021 should be extended through August, he says, to make up for lost school time.
Often conducted individually in the home with a tutor, he would like to see more schools opting in, as a group school setting would boost social and communication skills.
“It should be as far-reaching as possible. Schools should be incentivised to hold it there. The aim of the programme this year should be social connectivity. I don’t mind if the chequebook has to be opened to make this happen.”

Remote learning did not fulfil the constitutional right to education of those with additional needs

Harris, 25, was a key figure in making special education in the pandemic a national issue – highlighting how Ireland was the only country in Europe that didn’t keep classes open in lockdown, and explaining how remote learning did not fulfil the constitutional right to education of those with additional needs.
The young Wicklow campaigner – brother of Minister of Higher Education Simon Harris – was a vocal critic of the Department of Education for backing down to teachers’ union pressure resisting SEN school reopenings.
Investment is needed in the aftermath of this tumultuous year, he firmly believes. “We know children’s needs have increased massively; we’ve heard every actor in Government say so. If you really believe in it, you have to invest in it. Accept that there’s an associated cost.”
At the core of his campaign work is his own positive educational experience as a person with autism. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome from an early age, he knows how vital school is to ASD kids for reaching potentials.
He spent three years in Setanta special school in Stillorgan, Dublin, before transitioning to mainstream at St Patrick’s National School in his hometown of Greystones, Co Wicklow. “Setanta was a stark decision for my parents [Bart and Mary]. But what was the choice? Go to mainstream and be seen as the bold boy who can’t sit in his chair?
“I benefited from my time in special school; and it enabled me to go on to St Patrick’s. My mother was keen for me to go to mainstream. The most important thing about a school is the people in it, and the culture in it.
“It’s not a policy document, it’s a whole outlook. It’s a school that focuses on what you’re good at.”
He remains close to Jenny, his special needs assistant (SNA) for five years at St Patrick’s. “She was the game-changer. She was really good at reading me, knowing how to prevent a meltdown.”
He struggled mid-way through secondary, when the social divide widened in third year.
“It was difficult – I call it the Travelator effect. Everyone else was coolly walking on the Travelator and I was running on the hard ground to keep up.”
Transition year was “a major turning point” when a structured programme focusing on special interests suited him.

We have to move beyond wrong as being simply a legal concept; it’s a moral concept too

Special education is “an issue that means a lot to me, personally”, he explains. “The opportunities I have had, 20 years later are still being denied to other autistic young people. I feel a duty to pay this down.”
He said the recent Primetime Investigates revelations of the Department of Health’s secret dossiers on children with autism “sent a chill up everyone’s spine”.
“A lot of it relates to when I was in school myself. Some of the most senior civil servants have since said there was nothing wrong with what happened. We have to move beyond wrong as being simply a legal concept; it’s a moral concept too.
“In family law there is a mediation process, where everyone has to sit down and come to a resolution. Why doesn’t the State have to do the same?”
It’s reflective of the culture of “protecting the system over vindicating the rights of the vulnerable”. Like the State’s failure to provide in-school education for the SEN cohort in mainstream during the pandemic closures?
“While we may have on the surface an inclusive education system, it showed we can’t access those resources when we really need them,” he says.
“You should not have to negotiate to access constitutional rights. Our starting point should be how can we meet the needs of children?
“We can’t have a system that doesn’t place children at the centre; that is not democratic in its nature. The greatest education systems in the world are built on the basis of equality.”

Lessons need to be learned from the pandemic, which saw “immense suffering” of people with autism

To that end, Harris is pushing for a reform of the Education Act which, he says, is outdated and does not provide accountability.
“We need to look at the Education Act 1998, which is now over 20 years old. It means the Department of Education doesn’t provide education, it provides for education. I think that’s worrying; from the point of view of accessing essential services, the department is not in control and able to deliver, even when the political will is there, even when rights are involved. The Act doesn’t provide accountability on any level and that’s an area we desperately need to look at.”
He believes lessons need to be learned from the pandemic, which saw “immense suffering” of people with autism.
“Studies showed 61 per cent of children on the autism spectrum lost key abilities to cope, self-regulate and manage. I have spoken to parents whose kids had drastic difficulties interacting with other people, not having the day-to-day experience. Some became extremely distressed; often harming themselves or others in the home. Some lost the ability to engage in personal hygiene on a daily basis.
“That is public health data as well; that has an impact on child welfare and family welfare, and also on children’s prospects into the future.”
Summer catch-up wish list:
Extend summer provision programme from July into August
Double number of eligible hours from 40 to 80
Incentives for schools to take part
Big focus on boosting social skills