Written answers

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Department of Education and Skills

National Council for Special Education

Photo of Michelle MulherinMichelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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786. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the waiting time nationally and in County Mayo to have a child assessed for entitlement to a Special Needs Assistant at school; the length of time it takes thereafter for an Assistant to be provided for the benefit of the school child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28689/15]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, 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 allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs.

The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.

The Circular sets out the role of medical/other professional reports and recommendations by medical/other professionals in the context of consideration of applications for SNA support by the NCSE. The Circular explains that, while professional reports provide valuable assistance to education providers in identifying a diagnosis or identifying appropriate interventions, responsibility for deciding on the quantum of educational supports and resources to be allocated to schools to support pupils with special educational needs resides with the NCSE through the SENO.

Professional reports are provided to the NCSE as part of the application process through multiple channels including my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), Department of Health/HSE practitioners as well as private practitioners. As SNAs are allocated on the basis of meeting the qualifying criteria, which includes provision of professional reports, it is not possible to state whether or if there are waiting lists for such assessments.

However, should the parents of the child, the subject of this question, have specific concerns about his/her educational progress I would advise in the first instance that they speak to the Principal of the school with a view to raising these concerns with the school's assigned NEPS psychologist.

All schools were asked to apply for SNA support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March 2015. The NCSE also continued to accept applications after this date in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed.

The NCSE has now published details of SNA allocations for schools for September 2015 on its website. The NCSE will have some capacity to consider applications from schools throughout the school year for new assessments of disability, new entrants, or emergency or late applications, in accordance with the terms of the SNA scheme.

All schools have the 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.

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