Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the methods by which the National Council for Special Education has circulated its recently published Children with Special Educational Needs Information Booklet for Parents. [30977/12]

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 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.

In order to provide further assistance and information for parents, the NCSE has published a comprehensive Information Booklet for Parents for Children with Special Educational Needs. This booklet gives parents information on the full range of educational supports available in schools for children with special educational needs and is available to access/download from the NCSE website.

I understand that the NCSE has circulated copies of the booklet widely to representative groups and interested parties including representative groups in the education sector, Oireachtas members and attendees at the NCSE Research Conference. The booklet is available on request through the SENO network or through NCSE Head Office, for which contact details are available on www.ncse.ie.

I understand it is the intention of the NCSE to produce individual information pamphlets deriving from this booklet for individual disability categories.