Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy again for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to discuss special education teaching allocations and the review process, in which the Kilbride National School in County Meath is currently engaging. The NCSE is reviewing that currently and engaging with the school. It is important to say that.

Approximately 97% of all children, including those with special education needs, are educated in mainstream classes. In addition to the increase in SET support that we discussed today, we are also supporting children and families who need specialist placements, including in special classes and special schools. In recent years we have seen significant growth in special classes from 548 in 2011 to 2,921 in 2024, with 390 opened in the past year alone.

I reiterate that there has been an increase in the number of full-time SET posts across the country. This is increasing the overall availability of resources. As I have said, there will be 14,600 special education teachers supporting mainstream classes in the 2024-2025 school year, which is an increase by 1,000 since the 2021 school year. This is the highest number of SET teachers ever in our schools.

I acknowledge that every school is different and schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. There is always a challenge when we are looking to make allocations for those 4,000 schools. It is for this reason we have also streamlined that review process, with which the Kilbride school is involved, for special education teachers. Schools that feel they received an inappropriate allocation can seek that review.

As previously outlined, the Kilbride National School is currently involved in that process and that new streamlined review process has so far resulted in 32 reviews being completed and an additional 427.5 hours being allocated to these schools.

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