Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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701. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to ensure that a child (details supplied) in County Wicklow will receive all necessary special needs assistance care and resources, in order to enable the transition to mainstream schooling; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23154/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, 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 teaching and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support to schools to support children with special educational needs and additional care needs, respectively.

The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

All schools have been asked to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March, 2015.

Schools will be advised of their revised SNA allocations for the 2015/16 school year, prior to the end of the current school year.

It is a matter for schools to allocate SNA support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management.

The NCSE has now published details of the resource teaching allocations which will be made to each school for September 2015 on its website www.ncse.ie. The NCSE will also have a second round allocation process to respond to late enrolments, or from diagnosed disabilities emerging after the closing date for the first allocation round, to the start of the new school year.

In addition, all mainstream Primary schools are in receipt of learning support/resource teaching support under the terms of the General Allocation Model (GAM) of teaching supports. In circumstances where a child may be awaiting a diagnosis, learning support or resource teaching support can still be provided for that child from a school's general allocation of resource teaching/learning support provision, taking into account the needs of the child, pending formal diagnosis. In the event of a low incidence disability diagnosis being forthcoming, an application may be made to the NCSE by the school for a low incidence resource allocation. It is a matter for schools to monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils, in accordance with my Department's guidance. The teaching time afforded to each individual pupil is decided and managed by schools, taking into account each child's individual learning needs. All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO if they wish to discuss the resource allocation for individual pupils. 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.