Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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475. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her definition of the role of a special needs assistant; if she recognises that the role, in practice, involves assisting a pupil with academic work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5052/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the purpose of the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children who have significant special educational care needs, in an educational context, in recognised primary and post primary schools.

The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils, and the role of an SNA, is clearly set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie.

Circular 0030/2014 is based on recommendations contained in my Department's Value for Money and Policy Review of the SNA scheme and also the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) Policy Advice on Supporting Children with Special Educational Needs in Schools.

Both reports concluded that the SNA scheme has been highly successful in supporting the care needs of children with special needs in schools and with assisting to facilitate their inclusion.

Circular 30/2014 states that students with special educational needs can have very complex learning needs and should be taught by qualified and experienced teachers who are equipped with the necessary skills to meet the needs of these students. It is the responsibility of the classroom teacher to ensure that each pupil is taught in a stimulating and supportive classroom environment where all pupils feel equal and valued.

The Circular also notes that many children with significant special educational needs require additional teaching support in schools. In such circumstances, the classroom teacher will be supported by a resource teacher/ /learning support teacher, who are fully qualified teachers who will have access to additional training in the area of special education.

To provide for this additional teaching support, my Department currently allocates over 11,800 additional teachers to schools to support children with special educational or learning support needs. These allocations are made to schools, either through General Allocation schemes for primary and post-primary schools, or through additional allocations made to schools by the NCSE in respect of Low Incidences disabilities, as set out in my Departments Circular DES 02/05.

Such additional teaching support allocations are made to schools in addition to any SNA provision.

The Circular therefore notes that although the SNA can provide useful assistance to the teacher in ensuring that the pupil is able to access education, the role of the SNA is not to provide additional tuition, as this is the role of qualified learning support/resource teachers who may assist the teacher to provide additional teaching to pupils with special educational needs.

In order to provide further clarity in relation to the SNA scheme, my Department also asked the NCSE to prepare an Information Booklet for parents which has now been published and is available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie.