Parents fight council to send Ciara to school that 'allowed her to blossom'

Ciara McGearey, 13, who lost her sight when she was only three days old after suffering meningitis, cannot attend the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh because Edinburgh city council won't pay for it.

The local authority says it wants her to go to the council-run Oaklands special school, which does not specialise in blindness.

A tribunal, which was set up under the Additional Support for Learning Act, ruled in November that the Blind School was the best option for Ciara.

However, bailiffs arrived at Ciara's home on Friday to issue a summons to the Court of Session, after the council lodged an appeal against the decision.

Her mother, Rosie McGearey, said: "Three members of the tribunal panel were completely satisfied that the Royal Blind School was the school for Ciara.

"The waste of public money, if it goes to the Court of Session, and Ciara being dragged through this process, are in no-one's interest."

Ciara attended the Royal Blind School from the age of six months, when she went to a mother and toddler group and was enrolled as a pupil from 2001-3. However, her father, Mac, was posted to Suffolk with his regiment and the family had to move south.

Now, Mr McGearey has turned down a commission in order to take up a posting in Edinburgh so his daughter can attend the Royal Blind School, but the council are refusing to pay.

Ciara also suffers from hydrocephalus, slight cerebral palsy and a condition called neuro fibromatosis, which causes small tumours that are growing on her spine and threatening her movement.

Mrs McGearey said: "The main reason we want her to go there is it took us a few years to get to grips with everything that happened. The Royal Blind School allowed her to blossom and also taught us as parents."

Ciara uses a special form of sign language using sound and touch, which was developed at the blind school and is not widely used.

Mrs McGearey added: "It's not about whether she could sit a GCSE in French. It's about everyday life – how she can be the best that she can be with the problems she has had."

The city council declined to comment specifically on Ciara's case. However, a spokeswoman did say: "The council's general policy is that, if an appropriate place can be found in one of our own schools, then that is our preferred option for the pupil.

"Oaklands School provides a high standard of education for children with a wide range of complex needs."

David McLetchie, the family's Conservative MSP,

said: "The council seems to be looking at this from almost wholly from a financial point of view.

I don't think service families are treated well in this regard. They don't move by and large by choice; they go where they are posted.

"There seems to be a suggestion that when people move council areas, it goes from the responsibility of one council to another, and that is very unsatisfactory.

"Councils are playing pass the parcel with Ciara because they don't want to take financial responsibility for the cost of completing her education, which is not acceptable."