Results 2,441-2,460 of 7,283 for speaker:Josepha Madigan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: A new model for allocating special education teachers (SETs) to mainstream schools was introduced from September 2017, based on the profiled needs of schools.  Over 13,600 SETs are currently provided to mainstream schools to support the learning needs of pupils who have additional needs in literacy, including those arising from specific learning difficulties. It is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The NCSE has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews. My Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations. The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The Government has approved the provision of significantly expanded summer education programmes for pupils with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a Covid-19 pandemic response measure, for summer 2021. This is an incredibly important Government decision, which ensures that for first time all primary and post primary schools have the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Proposed Legislation (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: As Minister, I have powers under Section 37A of the Education Act to direct a school to provide additional places but this power is only used as a last resort and where all reasonable efforts have failed. This legal power to compel schools to provide additional places is only used where the following criteria apply: - there is established need for additional places in an area -...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 499 and 500 together. Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government.  The Department of Education will spend approximately €2 Billion or over 20% of its total educational budget in 2021 on making additional provision for children with special...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government.  The Department of Education will spend approximately €2 Billion or over 20% of its total educational budget in 2021 on making additional provision for children with special educational needs this year. The National Council for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: My Department previously funded 13 centres through an ABA pilot scheme for the period 1999-2011.  All of these centres applied for and were granted recognition as Special Schools for children with Autism and now form part of the network of special schools. A transitional agreement was put in place between the Department and Patrons of these schools to manage this process. As part of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government.  This year, over 20% of the total Education budget or €2bn will be invested in supporting children with special educational needs.As a result, the numbers of special education teachers, SNAs and special class and school places...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The NCSE has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews. The Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations. Accordingly, the question has been referred to the NCSE for direct reply. The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for the Government.   The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.  My Department will spend approximately €2 Billion, or over 20% of its total educational budget on making additional provision for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I thank the Deputy for his question. In budget 2021, as he knows, we secured an unprecedented investment of €2 billion dedicated to the provision of special education, which is one fifth of the entire education budget. Included in that was provision for approximately 235 speech and language therapy teachers. In addition, we got an extra 1,000 special needs assistants, SNAs, which...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I thank the Deputy for pointing that out. There is a special education review committee that deals with the resourcing of special classes with teachers and SNAs. Allocations are determined under those terms. When we talk about special classes, we know there should be two SNAs and one teacher per special class, if there are only six children in the class. That should be the number. If...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I should have said at the outset that separately from and in addition to the HSE supports for speech and language therapy, we are operating a demonstration project around the school inclusion model. That project was approved by Government in February 2019 and began operating in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7, encompassing Dublin, Kildare and west Wicklow. It was disrupted because...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I thank the Deputy for this question. It gives me an opportunity to respond on what we are doing with the expanded summer education programme for people with complex special education needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a Covid-19 pandemic response measure for summer 2021. This is an incredibly important Government decision which ensures for the first time that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: I reassure the Deputy that guidance has been given to schools in relation to this programme, particularly for the supervision of final year students, which was a key component of our interactions with schools. One of the things we wanted to make sure of this year was to remove any impediments schools felt existed to their participation. Last year, 804 schools were able to apply to provide...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: All these issues have been raised with the schools and dealt with by the Department. The level of investment has doubled from last year. Teachers and SNAs working on the programme will receive an additional weeks' pay for each week of the programme. If these staff have existing full-time contracts of employment with their school already paid during the summer, the summer programme payment...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The Government has approved the provision of significantly expanded summer education programmes for pupils with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a Covid-19 pandemic response measure, for summer 2021. This is an incredibly important Government decision, which ensures that for first time all primary and post primary schools have...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: The School Inclusion Model (SIM) is based on policy advice from the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) based on the principle of providing the right support at the right time delivered by a range of personnel with relevant qualifications and skill-sets. On 12 February 2019, Government approved the trialling of a new School Inclusion Model (SIM) for the 2019/20 school year in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: As the Deputy will be aware schools are allocated special educational support based on their educational profile. There are currently over 13,600 Special Education Teachers allocated to mainstream primary and post primary schools. The Special Education Teacher allocation process provides a single unified allocation for special education support teaching needs to each school, based on each...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (13 May 2021)

Josepha Madigan: Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) play a critical role in supporting the inclusion of pupils with significant care needs in education and in school life. This was acknowledged in the Comprehensive Review of the Special Needs Assistant Scheme (SNAs) published by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) in 2018. The majority of children with special educational needs attend school...