Call to Action- Government Spin doesn’t Reflect the Real Reduction in Special Education Allocations

It’s not necessary to start a rant about Fine Gael and Labour. You are encouraged to support these demonstrations.

http://www.specialneedsparents.ie/call-to-action-government-spin-doesnt-reflect-the-real-reduction-in-resource-teaching-allocations/#.Uci-FtI3tdc

Call to Action

The Special Needs Parents Association is calling all parents to attend demonstrations next Wednesday 26th June

No Supports, No Education, No Future

6pm outside Leinster House, Kildare Street

5pm outside City Hall, Limerick

6pm outside Department of Education & Skills, Athlone

5pm St. Patrick’s Bridge, Cork City

6pm Eyre Square, Galway

6pm The Clock Tower, Boyle, Roscommon

6pm Market Square, Letterkenny, Donegal

10:30 outside Clare FM, Francis St. Ennis, Clare

6pm Market Yard, Carrick on Shannon, Leitrim

6pm Enda Kenny’s Constituency Office, Tucker St. Castlebar

Yet again it is time to Fight Back!

The Spin

“Within the education budget, my focus has been on protecting those who are most vulnerable. There will be no reductions in the overall number of Special Needs Assistants (SNA) or Resource Teachers in this budget.” Minister Ruairi Quinn Budget Statement December 2012.

The Reality

Since 2010, there has been a decrease of 15% in the specialist teaching hours allocated to all children with more moderate to severe levels of special needs, with a further 10% cut to those essential teaching hours expected from September. “This is a direct attack on the educational provisions that are essential for children struggling through mainstream, in keeping with the Department of Education and NCSE’s policy of promoting Inclusion in education. With an increase of over 8,000 pupils with special needs requiring resource hours since 2011, you can’t have it both ways. Either provide children with the essential supports in mainstream to fulfill their potential or admit that the policy of Inclusion in our education system is based on rhetoric and is aspirational but not a priority for Government” stated Lorraine Dempsey, Chairperson of the Special Needs Parents Association.

Putting this cut into context for a child with autism, in 2010 they would have received 5 hours of resource teaching every week which will be reduced to 3 hours 45 minutes this September. This also includes time getting to and from the classroom, so the actual teaching time is much less than prescribed by the NCSE.

For the past few years, we have had to listen to the Minister for Education telling parents how he has done everything to ring fence the budget for special needs. The reality is that we have an ever increasing population of children in mainstream schools who need a higher level of educational support particularly at secondary level and we have not prepared for the future and present needs of these children.

Children are being excluded for school by only being allowed to attend for only 1-3 hours per day. Children are being suspended and expelled because some schools can no longer meet their needs in mainstream, but there is no where else for them to go as waiting lists for special schools grow longer each year. Children are being discriminated against because they may have siblings with disabilities that all qualify for July Provision that can only take place in the home. If they were attending school based July Provision, they would have two SNAs per class to assist the teacher. At home, they get no extra support and reduced hours overall under the new administration of the scheme this year.

Ms. Dempsey added “What we are creating is a bigger problem down the line for future governments and budgets when we pursue such shortsighted cuts. If you over-fill a passenger ferry, you risk sinking the whole ship. It’s up to us parents to take a stand on this issue, our futures depend on it”

STOP

For further comment email info@specialneedsparents.ie or phone 0877741917

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‘Doctors advised abortion – I'm glad I said no’, reveals mum.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/doctors-advised-abortion-im-glad-i-said-no-reveals-mum-29257563.html

Jennifer Kehoe with her daughter Louise (3) at home in Naas

CLAIRE MURPHY – 10 MAY 2013

A MUM was advised by her doctor to “travel to England” for a termination because of her baby’s foetal anomaly.

She was told her foetus had a life-threatening congenital heart defect and a rare brain disorder – and would have little chance of surviving outside the womb.

But little Louise Kehoe, now three years old, defied the odds.

Today, adoring mum Jennifer tells of how she and her husband felt “judged” for not choosing abortion – and how happy they are that they didn’t.

Jennifer and John Kehoe were told that their baby had little chance of survival outside the womb.

If she survived, her quality of life would be diminished.

But Jennifer said that, if they had gone ahead with the termination, they would never have experienced how their “delightful little girl” would “blow us away with love”.

The Kehoes’ daughter was diagnosed in the womb with a life-threatening congenital brain malformation called Dandy-Walker Syndrome and a heart defect.

As soon as the abnormality was identified, the couple said their obstetrician immediately offered to write them a letter to ‘go to England' and have a termination.

Jennifer and John, a GP, say that they were “advised to have an abortion by an Irish obstetrician on the grounds of foetal anomaly”, but are eternally thankful that they decided against.

“The very first thing our obstetrician suggested was, ‘Go to England'. We decided against that and to give our daughter a shot at life, however long or short that might be,” Jennifer said.

Louise (3) has now come through three heart operations, her cognitive development is normal and she is expected to lead a long and normal life.

fluid

However, Jennifer, who is now a mum of six, said that she and her husband felt “judged and punished” for deciding not to abort their baby.

“The very first thing that was said to us by the obstetrician was: ‘A lot of people would go to England'. And then there was a pause,” Jennifer told the Herald.

“Abortion would have been so far off from what we were thinking so we were so shocked.”

Jennifer was 42. The couple decided to have an amniocentesis or amniotic fluid test to check for chromosomal abnormalities.

“I had loads of miscarriages since the last baby – we had five children and the youngest was six,” Jennifer said.

“Abortion was never ever what we were thinking of, not even for the single flicker of a second.”

Jennifer from Naas, Kildare, said that once the diagnosis was outlined to her, she began to grieve for her unborn child.

“I said to John, ‘I hope that the baby dies soon' so that I could start the grief process.

“But about a day later I started to hope that the baby would get to 24 weeks, so she could get a birth cert. During this time we were handed a card for a bereavement

councillor and quite quickly after that I said ‘I want this baby to live, no matter what.'

“If we had made an appointment for England there and then, we wouldn't have had the chance to come to the third point in the thought process – that we would do anything to save our baby.”

The amniocentesis identified that there was no chromosome abnormality.

“It was only then that we got to see a cardiologist,” Jennifer said.

The Kehoes do not wish to name the hospital where the advice was given. But Jennifer wanted to tell her story to inform parents of their options when they are given information about terminations.

“Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, it is about the pressure that doctors put on you to make a decision,” she said. “The choice isn't being given.

“Doctors are pressuring people to go to England if there is a foetal abnormality and then punishing them if they don't make that decision.

“I think it was a eugenic attitude, that people who are disabled are a drain on resources.

“When the cardiologist saw us, he was the first one to call her a baby and said, ‘I give this baby a very good prognosis'. I found that much harder to get over, that she wasn't treated like a baby.

“I always remember the very last thing that was said to us by the obstetrician on the last day, ‘50pc mortality by age five, John.'“

Dandy Walker Syndrome affects one in 2,500 babies born and can severely impact brain development, speech and movement. Symptoms include slow motor development and progressive enlargement of the skull.

But Louise has none of these problems. She faced serious heart operations, but pulled through each one stronger than ever.

“If some of the babies have a strange chromosome deletion, there is no way of knowing how the baby will turn out.

“Louise is completely normal, she has this heart condition and she will be monitored all her life.

“We would never have known that Louise was about to defy all predictions, that she was about to defy her genes and that she would grow into a delightful little girl who has reached all her milestones with time to share,” she added.

The mum-of-six acknowledges that she is firmly pro-life and doesn't agree with abortion “in any circumstance”.

“To take an innocent human life is always wrong,” she said.

fighting

“We didn't know at the end of the day what the brain was going to be or if she was going to be seriously disabled.

“But when I see Louise now, the amount of people whose lives she had touched: everyone loved her before she was born.”

And she believes that Louise was the making of their family. “The eldest is 17 in June but for all of the children to see Louise fighting to live, to see how people have taken her on, I see a difference in them.”

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Irish women obtaining abortions in UK

A new investigation and research. See below.

http://www.symposiummaternalhealth.com/no-abortions-carried-out-on-irish-women-to-save-the-life-of-the-mother-since-1992-uk-figures-reveal/

Written by Administrator

December 14, 2012 at 11:13 am

Not one Irish woman has had an abortion in the UK in order to save her life since 1992, new research from the Committee for Excellence in Maternal Healthcare  (CEMH) has shown.

A response to a freedom of information request by the Committee to the British Department of Health shows that, between 1992 and 2010, no abortions were carried out on Irish women under section F of the UK Abortion Act, which requires records to be kept of abortions that were carried out to “save the life of the mother”.

Further, the same data shows that no abortions were carried out on Irish women between 1992 and 2010 under Section G of the same Act, which requires records to be kept of abortions conducted to “prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman”.

Commenting on the data for CEMH, Dr Eoghan de Faoite said:

“This data makes clear what Irish women have known all along – they do not have to leave Ireland to seek abortions if their life is in danger. In fact, not one abortion has been carried out to save an Irish woman’s life since the X case, despite the frequent and misleading claims of those who  support the provision of  induced abortion.

“As the Dublin Declaration, issued following the International Symposium on Maternal Health, confirmed: ‘the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women’. ”

“Further, the data makes clear that not one single abortion has been carried out on an Irish woman in the UK to protect her from grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health”.

“The results of this investigation are hugely significant for the government at this current time. Policy makers must be aware of the facts revealed by the official British records which show that abortions are not being carried out on Irish women in order to save their lives.

“Irish women will not be surprised by these figures. Pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not a cure. The oft-repeated claim that Irish women are travelling for so-called ‘life-saving’ abortions are shown to be false and without foundation. The truth is that British statistics show not a single life saved by an abortion in 20 years,” he added.

What we do know from the British experience is that in 2010, 66 children were born as a result of botched abortions in the United Kingdom and left to die. This is not a record to emulate in regard to human rights, or maternal health.

These figures make absolutely clear that Irish women are not traveling to Britain from Ireland to procure abortions in order to save their lives. Excellence in Maternal Healthcare should strive to obtain the best possible outcome for both mother and baby.

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