Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I am glad to see that the Minister of State with responsibility in this area is here tonight.

Last week I was contacted by the parents of two children both aged seven and each without a place in a school for the coming September. These children are lucky they have parents who are very proactive but even they were surprised at the late notice to inform them that the school which the children had attended for the last three years could not offer them a place for the coming year.

Both children have special needs and will need a lot of support in order to remain at mainstream school. The parents have applied to three other schools and have in at least one case appealed under section 26 of the Education Act. All that it is possible for the parents to do they have done, and they are still trying desperately to ensure that their children have a school place this September. In the words of the mother: "I am running around chasing my tail and becoming more desperate every day. When I ring the national education welfare board to speak to the office dealing with my daughter's case the phone rings twice and then stops. There is no voice mail and no return call." All the schools are now on holidays and it is unlikely that places will be found for these children before September.

How hard can it be to ensure that children who started school at five have a place at seven? We all know that additional supports are needed but surely, with two years in which to assess their educational needs, it should be possible to provide school places for children who are already in school. The last date for enrolment in most schools is 31 March yet these parents were not informed until the start of June, way too late for the children to apply for a place in another school. Why was it left until the last minute? Last week, having worked on this the whole week long, I eventually decided to phone the national education and welfare board. Imagine my shock last Friday when in order to move this on and try to get a place for these children I phoned to speak to someone, only to be told that the officer dealing with the case was on holidays. People need to take holidays but when I asked when he would be back I was told not until the 30 August. I thought it was a joke at first, since that was the day the schools were going back. The same day the children are due to start school is the date the officer dealing with the case will be back at work, 30 August. On further inquiry it would appear that eight people are working in the NEWB office in Cork, and six are now on holidays, returning on 30 August.

This to me, seems incredible, but I am assured it is the case. It also explains to me in detail why there is always an enormous panic during the summer in terms of school places and why nothing happens in that period. During the summer there is always a panic about why nothing happens in addressing availability of school places. The children in question will not be dealt with until 30 August. This means that even if a place is found for them in the primary school system, it will not be well into September. By then the rest of the school will have already started and these children will be playing catch-up, as if they were not playing it to begin with.

Why is it left until the last minute to inform these parents about the placements in the schools their children were already attending? Why is no one available to help them? The kids in question have proactive parents. What about those who have parents with their own difficulties?

When parents seek assistance from staff in the National Education Welfare Board who are paid to assist them to find their way through the process, they find they are not available for the entire summer as they have the same conditions as national school teachers. It is incredible an entire office can be off until 30 August.

Will the Minister intervene to ensure the children in question have school places for the end of August, not the end of September?

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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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-----

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Minister of State should take his time now and read this part of his reply very slowly.

Cyprian Brady (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State without interruption.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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-----assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. I take the point the Deputy raised.

At present, the Department funds over 8,600 whole-time equivalent learning support-resource teacher posts, over 10,000 whole-time equivalent special needs assistant posts and over 1,000 teachers in special schools.

Requests for support or assistance for children with special educational needs are made by schools directly to the National Council for Special Education which is responsible, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support children with special needs. The council operates within the Department's criteria in allocating such support. Parents may also contact their local special needs assistant directly to discuss their child's special educational needs.

In addition, enhanced capitation funding is paid to special schools and in respect of special classes in mainstream schools. The Department also provides over €50 million annually for special school transport arrangements. To further support the inclusion of children with special needs, all new school buildings and extensions are designed to enable access for all.

The Deputy's point about placements beginning at the end of August makes sense. I will bring the matter up with the Minister in the morning and respond to the Deputy as early as I can in the next two weeks.