Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1115: To ask the Minister for Education and Science further to Parliamentary Question No. 552 of 21 June 2005, her views on whether the implementation of the general allocation scheme will not ensure that each school has enough resource teaching hours to meet the needs of children with high incidence special needs. [24746/05]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1116: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the person who made the decision pertaining to children with Down's syndrome no longer being eligible to receive resource hours; if this person has experience of teaching children with Down's syndrome; the way in which decisions are arrived at without ever seeing the child in the classroom environment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24747/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1115 and 1116 together.

As the Deputy is aware, a new general allocation system has been introduced under which schools are being provided with resource teaching hours, based on their enrolment figures, to cater for children with high incidence special needs such as dyslexia and those with learning support needs.

My Department has issued a comprehensive circular, Sp. Ed. 02/05, recently to all primary schools regarding the organisation of teaching resources for pupils who need additional support in mainstream primary schools. The main purpose of this circular is to provide guidance for schools on the deployment and organisation of the teaching resources that were allocated under the general allocation model. This circular also refers to the deployment of additional teaching resources that are allocated to schools for the support of individual pupils with low incidence disabilities.

It is a matter for each school to determine the pupils with high incidence special education and learning support needs that will receive supplementary teaching support. Each school will have enough resource teaching hours to provide its pupils with a level of support appropriate to their needs.

My Department has reviewed the file on the child concerned in the last school year and based on the documentation submitted to my Department it was determined that the child concerned falls into the high incidence category.

The professionally-assessed needs of the individual child determine the appropriate model of response in each case. It would appear that a significant percentage of children with Down's syndrome have been assessed as having a mild general learning disability which comes under the high incidence disability category. Such pupils fall to be catered for from within a schools general allocation of resource teaching support. The school in question has been allocated one full-time post and 2.5 part-time hours under the general allocation system.

The school can use its professional judgment to decide how these hours are divided between different children in the school, to ensure that all their needs are met. Research shows that some children with special needs will respond better with one-to-one tuition. Others, however, do better when taught in small groups. Often it is best for resource teachers to work with children in the classroom rather than taking them away to a separate room, as the children then have to catch up on work done by the rest of the class in their absence. The point is that the type of response needed depends on the child. There is nothing to stop the school from allocating one-to-one resource teaching support to this pupil if they feel that this is the best type of support to meet her needs.

In circumstances where a Down's syndrome child has other associated needs and would fall into the low incidence disability categories, this may automatically attract an individual resource teaching allocation. Such applications should be referred to the local special educational needs organiser, SENO, by the school.