John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills.

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 requires all children with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs, unless the nature or degree of the need is such that to do so would be inconsistent with the best interests of the child or the effective provision of education for children with whom the child is to be educated.

The Department, therefore, provides for a range of placement options and supports for schools which enrol pupils with special educational needs so that, wherever a child is enrolled, he or she will have access to an appropriate education. To this end, over €1 billion has been allocated in the 2010 departmental budget to support special education in schools.

Children with special educational needs may be enrolled in a mainstream school and attend all mainstream classes. Children who are fully integrated may receive additional teaching support through a learning support teacher or a resource teacher. If the child has care needs, he or she may receive support from a special needs assistant. In other cases, a child with special needs may enrol in a mainstream school and attend a special class. This provides an option of partial inclusion in mainstream classes in line with the child's abilities. Alternatively, if appropriate, the child may enrol in a special school.

The Department supports special classes and special schools through the provision of lower pupil-teacher ratios for such classes, ranging from 6:1 to 11:1, the provision of special needs assistants and enhanced levels of capitation funding.

There are ten special schools in County Cork which cater for children with special educational needs ranging from mild and moderate to severe and profound difficulties. In addition, two schools currently cater exclusively for children with autism in the Cork area. The Department has also recently granted recognition to two other such schools.

The question of enrolment in individual schools is the responsibility of the managerial authority of those schools. The Department's main responsibility is to ensure schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places. This may result, however, in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

It is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act 1998. In this regard, a board of management may find it necessary to restrict enrolment to children from a particular area or a particular age group or, occasionally, on the basis of some other criterion. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants.

Under the Education Act 1998, each school is legally obliged to disclose its enrolment policy and to ensure principles of equality and the right of parents to send their children to a school of the parents' choice are respected. Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 also provides parents with an appeals process where a board of management of a school or a person acting on behalf of the board refuses enrolment to a student. Where a school refuses to enrol a pupil, the school is obliged to inform parents of their right under section 29 of the Education Act 1998 to appeal that decision to either the relevant vocational educational committee or to the Secretary General of the Department.

The National Educational Welfare Board is the statutory agency which can-----

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