Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

Some 399 new special classes have been sanctioned so far for the 2025-26 school year. Of these, 287 are at primary level and 112 are at post-primary level, increasing the number of special classes by 103% since 2020. This means overall that there will be 3,700 special classes and 129 special schools in operation throughout the country. We will continue to build on that.

Just under 3,300 children and young people were identified to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, under the new parents’ notification process by mid-February 2025 as needing a special educational placement for the upcoming school term. Close to 4,000 places are being made available nationwide between the new provision being provided, through the normal movement of students from primary to post-primary and students finishing post-primary.

The work now is focused on ensuring that these children enrol in these available places. The vast majority of schools opening new special classes have opened for admissions.

A small number have not but that is being addressed. The NCSE is engaging closely with the small number of schools to ensure they offer places as quickly as possible to the children seeking them. Schools were informed last week of their SNA allocations for this coming September, including for all new special classes. Special classes generally receive two SNAs per class. That is alongside their special education teacher and it is no different this year. Budget 2025 provided for 1,600 SNAs, the largest ever allocation in a single year, meaning there will be more than 23,100 in our schools in September, supporting our mainstream teachers as well as our special education teachers. It is the role of the NCSE to manage the allocations of SNAs across the country and to ensure that all of the additional SNAs provided for by this Government are allocated to support children with the highest level of need, so they get the highest level of support. It is important that we continue to meet this need across our education system. The programme for Government clearly commits to the recruitment of additional SNAs to provide greater support to students and schools. All SNAs and all new classes have been allocated and we want to build on that for next year.

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