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Teaching positions in Ireland

Last activity 22 March 2011 by HouseMother

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sarahann2378

Hi everyone,
I am a 29 year old graduate student in New York City. I have been working with children with Autism in private settings (homes, private schools) for the last 9 years, since I was 20, and will be completing a double masters degree in early childhood special education and early childhood regular education this year. I have a bachelor's degree in Psychology. 
My fiance has a BA in film. He is in the process of completing applications for dual citizenship  in Ireland based on lineage. He is looking in to going to graduate school after we get married and move, hopefully to Ireland. I'm wondering what the public school system is like in Dublin and what the job application process is like? Alternatively, I could continue working in private settings. Does anyone know of families who are seeking services for applied behavior analysis for their child with Autism?
Basically, I am interested in teaching individuals with special needs or not when we move to Dublin, possibly in  August 2012.
ANY advice on these or similar topics (or graduate school advice for my fiance) is more than welcome.
Thank you!

Sarah

HouseMother

We lived and worked with people with special needs in Ireland for a year.  We also have a child with special needs ourselves who was enrolled in the local national school while we were in Ireland.  (We had a brief and horrible experience at a Steiner/Waldorf school but that's a whole other story...)

The national school was wonderful.  We chose the local school as opposed to the nearby 'special' school.

In general, we found there was a shortage of qualified therapy providers in Ireland.  However, we found that it was very difficult to get therapy services in the school system.  It's not like America where most parents of children with special needs order services from a menu.  I know many parents paid for private services.

I know of one private provider of therapy services in Kildare -- Sensational Kids.  That's where we took our daughter for private pt/ot/speech.  We do not need ABA but I assume those services are also mainly private pay ???

Hope this is helpful.

By the way -- when I was in Ireland with my Irish citizen husband, I was not legally able to work unless some employer was willing to state, on the record, that they could not find any Irish national to do the job first.  Furthermore, you must be living in the country for 3 years before receiving citizenship through marriage.  Not sure about applying while in the US because we have not yet taken the matter up for our children who would all qualify through having an Irish father.  Even in a high demand field like special ed, you may have trouble in the current Irish economy...

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