A SEVEN-YEAR-old girl with an expressive language disorder has brought a High Court challenge to the refusal to provide a place for her in a school which provides speech therapy.
The girl has been refused a place in a midlands school which has speech and language classes and is in a mainstream school where she is becoming increasingly frustrated and isolated because she is not receiving specific help for her difficulty, her mother told the court.
Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday granted leave to challenge the refusal in judicial review proceedings brought by the girl, suing through her mother, against the Minister for Education and Science and the Attorney General.
The child is seeking a declaration that the Minister has breached her constitutional and statutory rights by failing to make available to her education facilities appropriate to her needs.
She also claims she is being discriminated against in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights. The enrolment criteria, set by the department, are unreasonable, irrational and perverse, it is claimed.
Mark Harty, for the child, said a new application had been made to have the girl placed in the school but it could only be assumed it would be refused because she did not meet the enrolment criteria.
In an affidavit, the girl's mother said the family moved to the midlands in 2004 because they had been advised there would be difficulties in getting speech therapy where they had been living.
They were advised to apply to the school which offered the facility sought but were told the child was too young and should reapply in 2007. In the meantime, she got a place in the mainstream school but when an application was made in 2007 to the desired school, it was refused.