Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 668: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the second level education of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; the position regarding the cost of the necessary assessment; if her Department will fund this cost; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22022/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Where a pupil with special educational needs enrols in a post-primary school, it is open to the school to apply for additional teaching support and/or special needs assistant support for the pupil.

My Department allocates additional teaching support and special needs assistant support to second level schools and vocational education committees to cater for pupils with special educational needs. Each application is considered on the basis of the assessed needs of the pupil(s) involved and having regard to a range of factors, including the overall resources available to the school.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has been established as an independent statutory body with responsibilities as set out in the National Council for Special Education (Establishment) Order 2003. With effect from 1 January 2005, the NCSE through local special educational needs organisers, SENOs, will process resource applications for children with special educational needs.

All schools have access to psychological assessments, either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, for those schools currently served by NEPS, or through the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments for those that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them. Schools that do not have NEPS psychologists assigned to them may avail of this scheme whereby they can commission assessments from a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS, and NEPS will pay the fees directly to the psychologists concerned. Details of this scheme, including the conditions that apply to it, are available on my Department's website.

An assessment was carried out on the student in question under the scheme for the commissioning of psychological assessments in 2002. However, a further assessment was arranged privately by the school authority at the request of the parents for which no funding is available from NEPS.