Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The piece about transition from primary to post-primary school is obviously critical. One of the challenges, as the Deputy mentioned, is when people move and we are not aware of that, particularly in the context of getting a special class specifically. If a family moves all of a sudden, it can be difficult. One of the things the Department has been doing in the past couple of years is making sure that we are more streamlined in our approach. It struck me and others involved in this area that there had not been a proper forward-planning forecasting model for a considerable period. Now, however, the building and planning unit shares its information with the NCSE. As a result, we can see where capacity is going to be needed in the future. Short-, medium- and long-term planning is going on at national and regional level. That is based primarily on population demographics but also on the average percentage of the schoolgoing population that will require special class places.

I have said publicly before that I do not want to be in a situation where, in a year or a number of years, I will be back before the committee talking about the lack of special class places, particularly during transition time. Unfortunately, there will always be cases where people fall through the cracks because of different factors, including moving from a special class to a special school, transferring from mainstream class to a special class or changing address. In the main, we should be able to anticipate in advance in the majority of cases. We have seen a growth in autism prevalence, for example. It has increased exponentially in Ireland and internationally. We have to cater for that. Most of our special classes are for students with autism. That is something we are very aware of. The main thing is that we have the structures in place in the way we have them for mainstream schools that are not for children with additional needs. If we can do it for schools of that type, we can certainly do it in the area of special education.

It is always open to a school to apply for an exceptional review if it requires an additional SNA. Obviously, there is the front-loaded allocation. In the coming weeks, schools will know exactly how many SNAs they will have for next term, which is important. It is important to say that in a mainstream school, a child does not need a diagnosis to access an SNA. However, we have an unprecedented number. Since 2011, we have increased the number of SNAs by 81%, which is quite considerable. There is always a demand for SNAs, and we have to ensure we have sufficient numbers coming on stream and adequate training for them, and that schools have the requisite number they need. As I said, they can apply for an exceptional review. Something like more than 50% of all exceptional review applications resulted in the allocation of an additional SNA or part of an SNA.