One principal has said children with special needs should not be segregated from mainstream schools.
Anne Marie Ford is Principal of Social Naomh Colmcille in Togher, Co Louth.
She was speaking amid a public consultation review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act.
The Act provides for the education of children under 18 with special needs.
Ms Ford told Newstalk Breakfast the majority of children would benefit from integration.
"While it's not a black and white situation, certainly we have early intervention classes in our own school where we work very hard with strategies and skills to prepare children and have them ready for mainstream schools to integrate in," she said.
"Some children will benefit from being in a special class; however, the majority of children should be integrated into mainstream schools.
"We need to be very careful about what we are doing when we are segregating children for eight years in primary school, six years in secondary school - 14 years - to come out the other side."
'Best interests of the child'
She said the needs of the individual child should always be paramount.
"This is what we always have to do - not look at people as cohort," she said.
"Look at each little individual girl or little boy, and say 'What is in the best interests of this child?'
"The Act actually does mention that as well: when is this in the best interests of the individual child."
Asked if some schools try not to take children with special needs, she said the main issue is insufficient training.
"I suppose within this there's no blame attached to anything," she said.
"The main issue, and the main anxiety for schools, is that there's insufficient teacher training.
"We looked at what needs to happen in order for inclusion to happen.
"So we're looking at teacher training, we're looking at a multi-disciplinary team attached to a cluster school.
"We're looking at a pupil-teacher ratio reduction, and we're looking at the proper resources to be put in place.
"Until that's done, I can understand the anxiety of schools," she added.
A meeting is being held for parents of children with additional special educational needs in Co Louth at Donegans (Monasterboice Inn) on Wednesday January 11th at 7:30pm. It can also be joined online
