Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and I share his interest in this area. As he has just noted, the SENOs engage with schools and work with them to provide the necessary places. I first will outline the position with regard to children with autism. The Deputy is aware the Government is committed to ensuring that all children with special educational needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post-primary school network. Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes, which may draw from a range of appropriate educational interventions delivered by fully-qualified professional teachers with the support of special needs assistants and the appropriate school curriculum. Children with autism spectrum disorder, ASD, who cannot be accommodated in mainstream education may be enrolled in special classes or special schools where more intensive and supportive interventions are provided. The Deputy also will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is responsible through its network of local SENOs for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support students with special educational needs, including autism. It also is the role of the NCSE to make appropriate arrangements to establish special classes in schools in communities where the need for such classes has been identified. SENOs engage with schools annually to plan for and to open new special classes each year to ensure there are sufficient special class placements available at primary and post-primary school level to meet demand in a given area. Special classes within mainstream schools are intended for children who, by virtue of their level of special educational needs, cannot reasonably be educated in a mainstream class setting but who can still attend their local school in a special class with a lower pupil-teacher ratio of 6:1.5 at post-primary level and with SNA support. I believe all Members are agreed this is a good option for them. Progress in developing this network has been significant and in addition to the special school placements, there are more than 1,000 special classes nationwide at primary and post-primary level, of which 762 are for children with autism. A total of 194 of these classes for children with autism are at post-primary level, which represents an increase of 27% on the previous school year. However, I acknowledge the issue raised by the Deputy pertains specifically to the post-primary area and to Cork. Nevertheless, progress has been made and the SENOs and the NCSE are engaging with schools on a regular basis to try to increase the willingness of schools to take on such special classes.

As for the requirement for post-primary school places for children with autism, the NCSE, through its network of local SENOs, will engage with schools for the 2016-17 school year to plan for and to open new special classes to ensure there are sufficient placements available to meet demand in an area. The NCSE also will allocate staffing resources to special schools to provide for the number of pupils enrolling for that year, while taking into account the disability categorisation of those pupils and in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department's Circular 0042/2011. Details of all of the special classes for children with special educational needs that are attached to mainstream schools are published each year on the NCSE website. I acknowledge there is a tight timeframe in respect of the forthcoming school year and that the Deputy is specifically raising the issue of post-primary provision in the Cork area. The SENOs are engaging regularly with schools and I recognise the Deputy is raising a fairly urgent issue.

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