Wicklow Educate Together National School Seek Help To Reopen Autism Classrooms

Wicklow Educate Together National School is today appealing to the Department of Education, Norma Foley TD, Taoiseach Simon Harris TD, local politicians and political candidates for urgent action to get the school’s specialised autism rooms open again.

After a storm and flooding in March of this year, the roof over the ASD classes was severely damaged and that part of building had to be subsequently evacuated and closed due to serious health and safety risks.

The school relocated the ASD classes to pop-up areas, storage rooms and support rooms within the mainstream part of the building on a temporary basis in March.

The classes and the students have remained in this temporary location for over eight months.

Appeals to the Department rejected

The school was hopeful that its Emergency Works application would be granted by the Department, but the application and appeal were both rejected. The school was told, on both occasions, to raise this with the original contractor, even though this state-appointed contractor went into liquidation in 2018.

Intolerable situation for Wicklow ETNS

This situation has persisted without resolution for much of 2024. It has created incredible stress and upset for children, staff and families. It is the opinion of the school’s Board of Management that the Department of Education are not dealing with this as an urgent manner.
The school has been unable able to offer any places for 2025-2026 which may indicate the closing of at least one ASD class. School leadership are also extremely concerned about the impact of future adverse weather events on the building.

Urgent help needed

Despite the hard work and dedication of the Wicklow ETNS staff, under very difficult circumstances, this situation has become untenable for the school community. Wicklow ETNS is today calling on the Department of Education, Norma Foley TD, Taoiseach Simon Harris TD, local politicians and political candidates to intervene and to take immediate action to get the school’s specialised Autism rooms
open again.