Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reinstate the two teaching posts lost to a school (details supplied) in County Cork. [34937/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating teaching staff and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to special schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Departments criteria in allocating such support, which now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts.

As set out in my Departments Circular 0042/2011, in order for the NCSE to complete the processing of applications for mainstream schools in the first instance, the existing 2010/11 level of SNA supports have been maintained in special schools for the coming school year, other than for schools with declining enrolments, with a review to take place early in the 11/12 school year. The school referred to by the Deputy has therefore not received a reduction in its SNA staff levels over those applying at the end of the last school year. The review of SNA support at special schools is currently ongoing and I understand that the review of SNA provision at the school referred to by the Deputy will take place in the coming weeks.

In relation to teaching posts, Circular 0042/11 states that there are a small number of special schools which have significant excess teacher posts and that the NCSE may therefore contact such schools to review the individual circumstances in these schools. The Circular indicated that the NCSE may suppress a post in schools which have excess teaching posts in order to create a post in a school which does not have excess posts and which has growing pupil numbers. The special school referred to by the Deputy caters for pupils with severe/profound disability and ASD. The correct teacher allocation ratio for schools catering for children with severe and profound disability is 6:1. In 2010/11 the school had 7 approved class teaching posts, 3 surplus teaching posts and 28 SNAs. The enrolment is 38 pupils, including 9 new children enrolled for September 2011. One of the surplus teachers retired at the end of the last school year and the school is not eligible for a replacement. A further surplus post has been withdrawn leaving the school with 1 surplus post above recommended staffing allocation levels.

It is the position of both my Department and the NCSE that given the exceptionally high levels of teaching and support staff which have been allocated to the school, that notwithstanding the outcome of any review of SNA support at the school, that the school has sufficient support within its overall allocation to enable it to provide for the teaching and care support requirements of all of the children enrolled to the school.