Ms Teresa Griffin:

I thank the Chairman for inviting the NCSE. At this point, I will highlight just a few points in the written submission forwarded to the committee recently.

The NCSE has a number of responsibilities in relation to special classes. We sanction special classes in mainstream schools; allocate teaching and SNA support for those classes; provide professional development training for teachers and principals in schools with special classes, something we have done since last year; and undertake research and provide policy advice for the Minister.

In recent years the NCSE has worked with many schools and sanctioned substantial numbers of special classes. We have moved from having 39 classes for children with autism in 2001 to 1,454 in the next school year. There are 264 classes outside those for autism. Of the total, 73% are in primary schools and 27% in post-primary schools, while 82% are for students with ASD.

Opening a special class happens in two ways. One is where a SENO identifies the need for such a class in an area and approaches all schools in the district to see which would be willing to open such a class. The other is when a school contacts a SENO and requests sanction for a class. There are a small number of cases where it has not proved possible to obtain school agreement to open a special class or where schools wish to take more time to consider opening a special class.

The reasons for this can vary. Sometimes the school simply does not have enough accommodation or space on its campus. Sometimes there can be concerns about the perceived inadequacy of the resources available and provided for schools. The final decision in each case rests with the board of management of the school and the patron if a change of building is needed. Therefore, the NCSE welcomes the provisions set out in the Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill 2016 which will give the Minister the authority to direct, after a process has been followed, that a special class should be opened. We think this positive development will help to alleviate some of the local issues. We hope this power will never have to be used.

I would like to highlight three findings from recent policy advice on special classes. First, the NCSE considers that the purpose of special classes needs to be further clarified. When we have been looking at policy advice as part of our work, we have come across cases in which schools state special classes are resourced for the more able students only, not for students with more complex needs. Second, we believe that because of the complexity of the post-primary set-up, with its multiplicity of classes, the current special class model may not be the most appropriate or suitable one for post-primary students. We want to do some more work on this issue. Third, our research has found that students who have been enrolled in special schools or classes rarely re-enrol full-time in mainstream education. This is a concern because students' level of inclusion in mainstream classes or their access to the full curriculum, or both, may be limited. Such inclusion and access are very important for the development of their social skills and getting them ready for life after school. We are concerned about this.

We are working with the Department of Education and Skills on the infrastructural, planning and broader issues I have mentioned. A short-acting joint working group of the NCSE and the Department is considering how to improve how we plan for short-term, medium-term and long-term physical infrastructure and school transport. The broader qualitative issues will be considered as part of a further piece of policy analysis and advice. Work on this aspect of the matter will commence later this year. In the meantime, the developing NCSE support service will continue to provide the professional development training that is badly needed by teachers and principals. It is providing in-school support for teachers of students with special educational needs, including ASD, in mainstream and special settings. As others mentioned, an in-school demonstration project in respect of speech and language and occupational therapy will be starting in September. I think everybody is very excited about the possibilities in that regard.