John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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36. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason some schools are being unduly penalised in relation to their special needs teaching allocation under a new departmental circular, such as a school (details supplied). [16496/17]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of my colleague, Deputy John Lahart, I would like to ask the Minister why St. Killian's junior national school in Tallaght is being unduly penalised with regard to its special needs teaching allocation under the new departmental circular.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department's circular has set out details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools. The new special education teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for schools, based on each school’s educational profile. No school, including the school to which the Deputy has referred, will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided to support the introduction of the new model. There has been a progressive improvement in resource teaching over the years since 2011.

The school referred to by the Deputy in his question had a general allocation of 50 hours - that is the general allocation model, GAM, element for 2016 to 2017. This, combined with 30.18 resource teaching hours allocated to the school by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, for children with complex needs, gave a total allocation of 80.18 additional teaching hours for 2016 to 2017. As the profiled allocation for this school did not indicate an increased allocation requirement for the school in 2017 to 2018, the school maintained its existing level of allocation. The special education teaching allocation for this school is 80.18 hours for the coming year. There has therefore been no reduction to the special education teaching allocation for this school as a result of the introduction of the model. The NCSE has announced the commencement of an independent appeal process through which schools may appeal the allocation made to their school if they believe the data upon which the allocation is based is incorrect or has been incorrectly used.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for the reply. I am looking at the figures he quoted. To be specific, he mentioned that the figure for last year was 80 hours and that it will be the same next year. He makes the point that this is not a reduction. The problem is that in this particular school in 2016 and 2017, the information is that there were 30 hours. However, if one looks back to 2015 and 2016, the same school had 60 hours in that allocation and had been at 50 hours over the five-year period. Effectively, the 30 hours that the Minister refers to in his answer to me today was the smallest recorded in any of the last five years. That is the basis for next year's allocation and is the issue that the school is complaining about. It is saying that it is not reflective of what had happened last year or over the previous five years. It is not out of kilter by a small bit, but is substantially out of kilter. That is the crux of the problem when averaging over a one year period only and only taking last year's figure into account.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The model will provide for some additional provision in exceptional circumstances, where the school's new intake, in the case that the Deputy describes, is substantially different from the intake it had in the past. The school will have to demonstrate to the NCSE that this has been the case. The NCSE will work with the school to seek to resolve those issues. Additional hours may be made available to the school where it can be demonstrated. The merit of this is that the school has resources now. It does not have to wait for the assessment. This diagnostic test has been taken away. There are many advantages in the new model. If, as the Deputy says, there is exceptional change in the profile of the school, that is something that the NCSE will look at.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome that there is an appeals mechanism. The exceptional profile in this case was that the resource teaching hours for the single year in question dipped to 30. It had been 60 hours in the previous year and the average over five years had been 50 hours. The exceptional circumstance was the dip. That is the concern with this general allocation model. One particular year is being taken on its own, which may not be representative, and is clearly not representative of what has happened in this case. I acknowledge that there is an 80 hour allocation, but that is under what would have been the norm for the previous years. I welcome that the appeal mechanism is in place.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The complex needs aspect takes into account the four cohorts. There are four years from junior infants right up to second class. It looks at the complex needs profile of those schools. That complex needs profile is delivered to the school. For that to be dramatically wrong, the cohort leaving the school must have dramatically lower special education needs than the cohort joining the school. If the school can demonstrate that the situation is that the new intake is dramatically different from the children who have moved on into third class and into another school, then that is the material that the NCSE would look at, and it would work with the school to resolve the situation. We need to see the actual enrolment. That would have to be evaluated exactly, based on the children concerned.