Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 820: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the function and composition of the proposed new behaviour support teams; the way in which they will contribute to improved student discipline and fewer suspensions and other sanctions; the proposed timescale for the introduction of the behaviour support teams; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11113/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The establishment of a behaviour support team is at the core of many of the recommendations of School Matters — The Report of the Task Force on Student Behaviour in Second Level Schools. When launching the report on 14 March, I announced that I would be taking immediate steps to establish such a team. The role of this team will span the spectrum from diagnosis of school problems to assistance with remediation. I want the team to be staffed by practitioners of the highest calibre with real on-the-ground experience and the capacity to work collaboratively with those schools experiencing significant discipline problems. My Department will shortly advertise and recruit staff for this team, with the intention that it will be fully operating in the next school year.

The behaviour support team will work with schools having significant discipline problems. The task force report supports this focused approach and, to this end, the team will be based regionally. The report also recommends an increase in the staffing of the national educational psychological service, NEPS. Additional psychologists will be recruited by NEPS in order to assign members of that service to work exclusively with the behaviour support team. Other support teams, such as the leadership development for school and the second level support service, will collaborate with the behaviour support team in addressing the causes of behavioural difficulties in some schools. Student behaviour is not a stand-alone issue and cannot be solved in a stand-alone way.

When established, the behaviour support team will invite applications from schools experiencing significant discipline problems. Following an initial screening, the team will choose schools for participation in the first phase of its activity. The first step in schools seeking support is one of themselves identifying the existence of a serious discipline problem. The behaviour support team will engage intensively in the school over a period of time, to identify at school level, those measures and changes which need to be put in place in order to bring about real and sustained improvement in student behaviour. The behaviour support team will work, in the first instance, with schools experiencing the most severe discipline problems. Up to 50 schools may be involved in the early phases of the team's work.