Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 86: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when he will sanction the grant of a full teaching post in respect of an application for resource hours made by a school (details supplied) in County Wicklow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32314/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

Circular 37/2011 provides information to schools regarding the arrangements which are being put in place for the 2011/12 school year for the allocation of Resource Teaching hours for children with assessed special educational needs.

In relation to the allocation of individual Resource Teaching hours, the position is that for the 2011/12 school year an initial allocation of 90% of valid identified resource teaching allocations has been made by the NCSE to schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy. This allocation, in the first instance, provided schools with the majority of their allocation, yet preserved enough capacity to deal with late applications and ensure that my Department can remain within Employment Control Framework obligations.

Schools had been requested to forward any outstanding applications, or additional outstanding materials to support incomplete applications to the NCSE for consideration before 16th September 2011. These applications have been considered and my Department has approved the allocation of further Resource Teaching supports in schools by the NCSE. The NCSE will be in contact with schools in the near future to inform them of their individual allocations.

Finally, the NCSE has recently published statistical information in relation to the allocation of SNA posts and resource teaching hours to Primary, Special and Post Primary Schools. The information is provided on a county by county and school by school basis on its website at www.ncse.ie.