The Red Door was the brainchild of 3 families back in 2001. Each lived in South Dublin, and despite years of searching, couldn't find an appropriate school placement for their respective autistic child.
The other thing they had in common was that they had attended Colm Fulham's ICANDO training sessions on Applied Behaviour Analysis. Colm and Denise built their own stand-alone unit in 2000 in their back garden in their home in Clontarf and brought together 4 families with home tutors for their autistic children and provided a school-like classroom setting. Not only that, but Colm also provided week-end training sessions to other parents to learn about Applied Behaviour Analysis. Bringing in a variety of consultants, different subject matters would be addressed each month. If anyone deserves a special award in the development of ABA in Ireland, our vote goes to Colm and Denise.
Taking inspiration from ICANDO, Martina Boylan, Gene Sun and Adele McInerney came together to meet the needs of their children in South Dublin. Their first premises was a small (very small) 4-room cottage in Annaville Avenue, Blackrock, Co.Dublin. After a quick conversion job, the school opened on 1st September 2001. Staff training had started some weeks earlier, and it was a great day when it all came together. One minor thing escaped their attention, and when the Department of Education's Inspector came to visit during this set-up phase, having seen the excellent work taking place, he asked for the name of the school. Standing at the front door, and seeing its colour, he was promptly told "The Red Door".
The four rooms had been converted into classrooms. But space was limited, so the 2 Barna sheds had to be converted into the "Office" and the "Staff-Room".
The school grew from these modest beginnings, and quickly established a high level of expertise and respect for the work that was being done. We had many leading consultants visit to help in the supervision and training of the staff, and these included Dr. Bobby Newman, Dr. Peter Gerhardt, Helen Bloomer and Joanne Gerenser, amongst others.
In 2005, the school moved to larger premises in Sandyford Industrial Estate. This offered more space to increase the number of students.
Developing the goal of sharing the information and experience with as wide an audience as possible, The Red Door held its inaugural Autism Conference in June 2006. This was a major success, with several leading National and International ABA figures presenting on a wide variety of subjects, to an audience of parents and professionals. This was followed up with further conferences in 2007 and 2008.
An opportunity to move to the former Educate Together school premises in Monkstown arose in 2009. This was quickly taken up, with the new premises offering more space to develop a wider range of services.
In 2010, The Red Door joined other Pilot ABA schools in applying to the Department of Education and Skills for Special School status, arising out of discussions between the Department and IAA. In November 2010, The Red Door School was offered and accepted Special School status. It is now in a transition period, during which a new Principal and teachers have been recruited, and existing Red Door tutor staff transferred to Department of Education employment.