Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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262. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a decision will be made for the application by a school for resource hours and a classroom assistant in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cavan; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the delay in making a decision in same is affecting the child in view of the fact that they has significant learning difficulties that urgently require assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18369/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from primary and post primary schools for special educational needs supports including resource teaching and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

All schools were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16th March, 2012 and have been advised by the NCSE of their allocation for the current school year. In addition, schools were requested to submit outstanding applications for resource teaching support for the 2012/13 school year by 5th October. In relation to SNA support, whereas all qualifying schools were given an allocation of SNA support in advance of the school year, it has been open to schools to apply to the NCSE for additional SNA support where they subsequently enrolled new pupils with special educational needs who were not considered at the time that these allocations were made, or where new medical conditions have arisen in the interim.

Schools have been advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/14 school year by 15th March 2013, and schools will be notified by SENOs of their resource teaching and SNA allocation for 2013/14 in advance of the coming school year, based on the number of valid applications received. 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.