David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and I acknowledge his sincerity in doing so. The Minister for Education and Skills also thanks the Deputy for raising this matter and sends his apologies for not being here to reply. The Minister wishes to assure the House that the education of children with special educational needs remains a key priority for the Government. The Government now invests €524 million in the special needs assistant scheme annually, as part of a total €1.75 billion investment in special educational needs overall.

There will be a total of 15,000 SNAs working in our schools, providing support for approximately 36,000 pupils, by the end of this year. This is a 42% increase on 2011 when the number of SNAs stood at 10,575. The Minister welcomes the fact that we have been able to continue to meet the needs of children with special educational needs attending our schools and to increase provision to address emerging needs in this area. The SNA scheme, in particular, has been a major factor in both ensuring the successful integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education and the provision of support to pupils enrolled in special schools and special classes. The Minister assures the House that schools which have enrolled children who qualify for support from an SNA will continue to be allocated SNA support in a manner appropriate to their needs.

The House will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, which is an independent agency, is responsible, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, for allocating a quantum of special needs assistant support for each school annually, taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. Importantly, each school’s allocation of SNA support can change from year to year and may be increased or decreased as students who qualify for SNA support enrol or leave a school. New students with care needs may or may not enrol to replace students who have left, for example, or SNA allocations may be decreased where a child’s care needs have diminished over time.

The NCSE policy advice on supporting students with autism spectrum disorder found that students are generally well supported in schools with: appropriate curriculum; extensive teacher and SNA supports; improving range of educational placements supported by improved accommodation and equipment; improved teacher knowledge and understanding and a generally good standard of provision at primary and post-primary levels. The NCSE policy advice noted that ASD is a spectrum condition, so some students with ASD require little support in school and are relatively independent in their learning while others require significant levels of support. The Department’s policy is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support.

The NCSE has an appeals process, to which the Deputy alluded, which may be invoked by a parent or a school where it is considered that a child was not granted access to SNA support on the grounds that Department policy was not met. Schools may also appeal a decision where the school considers that the NCSE, in applying Department policy, has not allocated the appropriate level of SNA support to the school to meet the care needs of the children concerned. Where a school has received its allocation of SNA support for this school year, but wishes new enrolments or assessments to be considered which were not taken into account when the initial allocation was made, it may continue to make applications to the NCSE.

The Minister for Education and Skills is pleased to advise that schools in Roscommon and Galway have had an increased SNA allocation over the last number of years. Roscommon has been allocated 186 SNA posts for the start of this school year, an increase from the 171 posts allocated for the 2017-2018 school year. The SNA allocation for Galway has also increased from just over 778 posts for the last school year to over 819 posts for this school year. This is an increase of 9% and 5%, respectively, for Roscommon and Galway for this school year.

As part of budget 2018 funding is being allocated for the recruitment of more than 1,000 new SNAs in 2018. There were 70 allocations made between January and June, 800 additional SNA posts were made available for allocation to schools in September 2018 to meet the demands for the new school year and there is an additional allocation of 140 posts expected between September and December 2018, bringing the total to 1,000.

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