A heartbroken Dublin mum is "getting upset everyday" as her five-year-old daughter with autism has been refused a place at over 20 schools
Jennifer Quinn's daughter Eva will turn six this summer and it is likely she will have to do a fourth year of preschool as schools suitable for her are rejecting her applications.
Eva is autistic and non-verbal and has a moderate intellectual disability.
Because there is too few spaces and too many children with additional needs, Eva has been rejected by over 20 schools.
Jennifer said they had the same problems last year and were told that it “wouldn’t do Eva any harm” to spend another year in preschool.
“In a way, I am just happy that she doesn’t have the cognitive ability to understand that she can’t go to school like all the other kids because that would just be heartbreaking," she told The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk.
The Dublin mum explained that Eva was recommended for special school or for an autism class in a mainstream school.
She said: “She couldn’t possibly cope in the mainstream and because of that, we need the special school and we are at the point now where we have applied for upwards of 20 schools.
“We have been refused from every school so far and it is looking like she will have to do a fourth year of preschool.
“She is coming up to six and she doesn’t have anything. She needs a special school.
“They have said she can go to a unit in mainstream school but as her parents we think a special school would be most suitable and that is what the pre-school is advising us as well.
“She is non-verbal; she doesn’t talk and it really needs to be a special school.”
The family has contacted a number of TDs and Tusla about the situation but “no-one seems to want to take ownership of it".
Jennifer is worried that Eva could be seven-years-old before she she gets the opportunity to start school.
She said: “We are so worried, I find I am getting upset every day.
“Every time a letter comes in refusing her, I am just crying.
“Myself and my husband are losing sleep over it because if she doesn’t get a place before September there is no guarantee she will get one for next year and she will be seven then.
“She is an autistic little girl. She needs social interaction.
“She has to nearly be taught how to socialise with other children and it is detrimental if she is not around other children.”
“She is slipping through the cracks I feel and the book is just being passed."
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