John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 41: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if an application for special needs support for the 2012/ 2013 academic year was received in respect of a child (details supplied) who was recently diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum. [28744/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports including resource teaching and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, to support children with special educational needs.

The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.

All schools had been advised to apply to the NCSE for SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16th March, 2012 and schools will be notified shortly by their local SENO of their resource teaching and SNA allocation for 2012/13, based on the number of valid applications received and, in the case of SNA support, the extent of the care needs of qualifying children.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.