Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

3. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children with special educational needs who are currently without a school place. [23804/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

How many children with special educational needs are currently without a school place?

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I understand that it is an anxious time for parents who are seeking a school place for their children. I reassure the Deputy that this Government is determined to do all it can to help families that are seeking a special educational placement for their child. My Department is working closely with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, on the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places.

In the budget last year, funding was secured for up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools and an additional 300 special school places for the 2024-25 school year. This will deliver 2,700 places for children. The NCSE has advised my Department that more than 320 new special classes have already been sanctioned nationwide for the coming 2024-25 school year, providing more than 1,900 special education places in mainstream schools. There are now more than 3,000 special classes in our education system providing places for more than 20,000 students. We have also opened four new special schools for September 2024 and increased capacity in a number of existing special schools to ensure that more children than ever can access an education that is appropriate to their needs.

My Department and the NCSE are actively engaging with school patrons and management bodies to ensure additional special classes for the coming school year are provided in areas where they are needed. I expect these remaining new special classes will be finalised in the coming weeks and that this additional provision, coupled with vacancies in existing special classes, will provide the additional capacity needed. It is also important to note that there are vacancies in existing special classes as children move from primary to post-primary or leave our school system. These places are filled on an ongoing basis.

The NCSE is working with schools that may be available to open classes for September 2024 but whose capacity may not be required at this time. They will remain options for additional provision if required throughout the 2024-25 school year.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I note that she did not answer the question on the number of children with special educational needs are without a school place. At the moment, we are seeing people such as Sarah Dooley, a lady about whom I have spoken before in this House. She applied to 20 schools before her twins were offered places. These are twins with very high needs. They now face an hour-and-a-half round trip to the school at which they have managed to secure a place. She is glad they have a place, but she is certainly not grateful for the distance her children have to be travelled. It is pulling them out of their community and away from their peers.

The children who do not have an adequate school place either now or for September are the ones we see being put on reduced timetables, excluded from schools and at the highest level of potential educational disadvantage. I spoke to one mother last week who told me she has a path worn to the SENO and the NCSE and there is still no offer beyond home tuition. This woman is a professional who holds down a full-time job.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I hear exactly what the Deputy is saying and I hear from across the country that parents feel anxious and frustrated. What we are doing, and what I am doing in my role as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, is increasing the number of SENOs on the ground, whose role it will be to be visible and active, and engaging and working with parents and schools to help them to find places for these children. I do not want us to be in the situation in September 2025 that we are in now, where parents are unnecessarily anxious and frustrated about finding places for their children for the upcoming September. We had 73 SENOs and they were spread very thinly across the country and each covered a very large geographical area. They will now have just one county that they work from and there will be 120 of them. They are being upskilled and trained and much of the administrative burden, such as filling out forms and applications, will be taken from them. This means they can be on the ground, helping parents and helping schools in forward planning for places.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The parents I speak to are well used to having to battle the State and having to fight for every service their child has ever received. By the time they get to a SENO, they have already tried everything that is going to be recommended by that SENO. I agree with the Minister of State about regionalisation. My constituency in the midlands was in the same area as Donegal, and Lord help the SENO who was trying to cover that area of ground. It is not just us, the parents or the schools saying this. The Ombudsman for Children has raised concerns about the unacceptable level of stress caused to families when children with additional needs are denied the right to education, which is what this is. All children with SEN should enjoy the right to education without discrimination and on an equal basis with the rest of their peers. I understand what the Minister of State is saying about forward planning. However, the Department recently released figures around the future ability of schools to meet additional SEN requirements. The figures suggest there is going to be an increase of over 11,000 children with additional needs in education by 2030. If the Government cannot get to grips with the demand that is there today, what hope is there of dealing with the needs of an additional 11,000 children by 2030?

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is for that reason we are investing €2.7 billion in special education, a third of the overall Department of Education funding. A lot of very good work is happening across the country. We want to improve and increase the resources of the NCSE, which is happening on a weekly basis. It will have those 120 SENOs on the ground and visible from this September. They are already on the ground but I want to see them in a position where they can actively engage with parents, guardians and schools to ensure children have access to the places they need.

With regard to additional capacity, the NCSE is working very closely and hard with schools and boards of management to identify those places for children for this upcoming September. I am confident about the additional capacity required to meet the needs of children known to the NCSE for September 2024. The Deputy can be assured I will be in regular contact with the NCSE to make sure this work continues.