Dublin mum wins school place for non-verbal son after 19 rejection letters

Deputy Lord Mayor Alison Field speaks candidly about the challenge of securing a school place for her non-verbal Autistic son James and the impact a lack of support services has an parents

Deputy Lord Mayor Alison Field can breathe a sigh of relief as she has secured a school place for her Autistic son after facing 19 rejection letters.

Labour councillor and newly elected Deputy Lord Mayor Field previously spoke with Dublin Live about the challenges of securing a school place for her 12 year old son James, who is severely Autistic and non-verbal. Having taken her advocacy all the way to Brussels and speaking on behalf of parents in the European Parliament, she now wants to highlight the often unseen struggle caregivers face and the ways they have been let down by the State.

Alison knows better than most that early intervention is key when addressing a child’s additional needs, but she says “ kids are rotting on waiting lists ” as numbers continue to balloon. As a Clontarf representative, Alison feels lucky to have at last found a school place for James, but as she got her letter of acceptance she couldn’t help but think “there's probably 40 people reading a letter of rejection as we're getting this”.

View 4 Images Labour Councillor Alison Field and her husband Dave (Image: Robbie Kane)

For every school place a parent secures, Alison said there’s dozens more panicking every day that their neurodivergent child’s needs won’t be met. She said every delay heightens fears that they’ll regress without proper care and be left languishing on waiting lists within an overburdened education system .

James cannot speak and was waiting over two years for an assessment of needs and diagnosis. Being deprived of essential early intervention help, Alison has made it her mission to be a voice not just for James, but for all the children and parents around Ireland who deserve proper care and attention and are so often left wanting.

While James was previously in a mainstream school that didn’t fully meet his needs, Alison was thankful for the care he received in an ASD class with six children, two SNAs and a teacher. Now, as he progresses into secondary school, the caring mum fought hard to get him into a special school that would be more appropriate for the severity of his disability and in order to achieve this had to traverse a complex system of ever changing application requirements.

She explained that the lack of a centralised system for applications makes the process challenging, confusing, and time-consuming for parents. This includes navigating a mix of online and paper forms, often requiring everything from psychologist reports to original birth certificates.

Balancing these 19 applications with the demands of caring for their children - James and their teenage daughter, who just did her Leaving Cert - is overwhelming. Consequently, Alison and her husband, Dave, have been forced to live "totally separate lives" just to juggle their work and caregiving responsibilities.

Securing a school place is only part of the family's struggle. Alison explained that the constant demand of caring for James has left her chronically sleep-deprived. She likens caring for him over the last nearly 13 years to looking after a baby, though she notes that comes with the same "love and cuddles." While some might label their situation a burden, the hard-working mum said she refuses to use that word for James, even as she honestly admits, "it is hard."

“He’s changed me so much. He’s changed us all. I say to his sister ‘this will stand to you in life,’ and it really will,” she said.

View 4 Images Lord Mayor Daryl Barron and Deputy Lord Mayor Alison Field accompanied by Peter Hendrick ADC to the Lord Mayor

As a person with nonverbal autism, James is classified as an open case within the Children's Disability Network Team (CDNT), but Alison said he receives no speech therapy. “We receive nothing. Even when you're an open case, you're on lists within them for therapies,” she said.

Looking after a child with this level of need will never not be difficult, Alison said, but it does not need to be as hard as it is. That’s why she has opened up about her family’s story, as she wants to highlight issues like the government’s legal requirement to an assessment of needs within six months of an application. Despite this, today more than 16,000 children are waiting, with an average wait time of nearly 25 months.

Alison presented their petition supported by five other families to the Petitions Committee in Europe accompanied by Labour spokesperson on Education Eoghan Kenny TD last May. She argued the government’s failure is a breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and asked that Ireland be directed to access EU technical assistance and funding.

“What we were trying to do bringing that petition to Europe was create awareness," she said, stating they have six months to get a reply. Alison sent this information to Minister for Children Norma Foley which called on the EU to investigate Ireland’s "systemic failures” and monitor how the rights of children with disabilities are effectively protected.

Other areas that could radically improve the lives of children and parents to those with disabilities would be greater access to respite services. Currently, James can avail of overnight respite twice a month, which Alison says gives her family a chance to recharge.

She says it was difficult at first and she was heartbroken to be separated from James, but especially as their family gets older it’s important that he is able to adapt to new places and circumstances. Now, James loves to go to respite, but the limitation on his attendance means the Field family never have more than one day at a time and any sort of holiday or trip away is out of the question.

Alison spoke about how the sheer anxiety of something happening while they were out of the country made them reconsider an overnight trip to Liverpool for their teenage daughter who loves the Beatles . The demands of caregiving have taken a toll on the couple’s social life in many ways.

“Me and Dave, about 26 years ago we started following the Dubs all around Ireland. Great fun, we had great times," Alison recalls. "And up to two years ago, I was still doing it. We did start to bring James to it, but it got too hard to look after him at a match. So one of us has to mind him and I haven’t gone in two years.”

Even simple things like taking James for a haircut can be problematic, so Alison learned to cut his hair herself. While for many going to a restaurant offers a break from the pressures of cooking, this isn’t the case for Alison and her family.

“We don't eat out because it's difficult. There were one or two really bad experiences and I just can’t take the pressure of it. You basically go and you're praying they'll bring the food quickly, and to me it's just not worth the hassle.”

Alison’s role as Labour councillor and Deputy Lord Mayor balances the personal with the political as she can see first-hand how deeply interlinked the struggles parents face are with the lack of support available to them. As a steadfast campaigner, Alison commends Dublin City Council ’s goal of becoming the first Autism Friendly Capital City and wants to use her platform to raise awareness, particularly for those with disabilities as severe as James’s.

“I am just constantly either working or minding James, that's my life. But I tell the world everything. Dave does be like, 'What are you like?' I say, 'I don't care.' It helps, it's important. These are the kinds of stories that people need to read,” she said.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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