Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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66. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the services and schools available for children who have been diagnosed with dyspraxia and DCD in the greater Dublin area; if the current services available will be upgraded and reviewed in line with demographic changes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1813/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides for a range of services and supports to ensure that children with special educational needs, including children with Dyspraxia and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), can have access to an education appropriate to their needs. These supports include additional teaching and care support, enhanced capitation, specialised school transport arrangements, funding for schools for the purchase of assistive technology and/or specialist equipment, adaptations for school buildings where necessary in addition to provision for continuing professional development for teachers of children with special educational needs through the Special Education Support Service (SESS).

My Department’s policy is that children with special educational needs should be included where possible and appropriate in mainstream placements with additional supports provided, unless such a placement would not be in their best interests or in the interests of the children with whom they are to be educated, as is provided for under Section 2 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 (EPSEN Act 2004). In circumstances where children with special educational needs require more specialised interventions, special school or special class places are also available.

Children with dyspraxia and DCD attending school may be entitled to additional teaching provision in school, either under the terms of the school's teaching allocation for pupils with high incidence special educational needs, if their educational psychological assessment places the child in the high incidence disability category, or separately, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocates additional resource teaching hours to schools for children who have been assessed within the low incidence, or more complex, category of special need, as defined by my Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05. The precise level of support is determined by the special educational needs of the particular child.

All mainstream Primary and Post Primary schools have been allocated significant additional teaching resources to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs, including Specific Learning Disability (SLD); dyspraxia and DCD are considered to be Specific Learning Disabilities. It is a matter for individual schools to use their professional judgment to identify pupils who will receive this support and to use the resources available to the school to intervene at the appropriate level with such pupils. Schools are supported in this regard by the National Educational Psychological Services. Schools should monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils. The teaching time afforded to each individual pupil is decided and managed by schools, taking into account each child's individual learning needs.

Schools are not required to apply directly to my Department for learning support for children with SLDs. Schools should monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils, in accordance with my Department's guidance.

My Department provides guidelines for schools in relation to the utilisation of additional teaching resources which have been allocated to them for pupils with high incidence special educational needs. These include:

- Special Education Circular Sp Ed 02/05 - Organisation of Teaching Resources for Pupils who need Additional Support in Mainstream Primary Schools,

- Circular 70/2014 which provides guidelines for post primary schools in relation to the utilisation of additional teaching resources which have been allocated to them for pupils with special educational needs,

- Inclusion of Pupils with Special Educational Needs Post Primary Guidelines, and which describes the graduated problem-solving model of assessment and intervention in schools, which is available on my Department's website .

As the allocation of support for pupils with SLDs is managed locally by schools, a parent who feels that their child requires additional learning support in school should raise this matter directly with their school Principal in the first instance, or with the Board of Management of the school.

Specific Learning Disability is not a disability category included in the list of low incidence disabilities which are eligible for the allocation of resource teaching hours to individual students, under the terms of the relevant circulars.

The NCSE has a statutory role under the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 to provide me with policy advice in relation to matters concerning the education of persons with special educational needs. In policy advice provided to my Department the NCSE advised that the current system for allocating resource hours to schools to support pupils with specific disabilities is potentially inequitable; this is because the current system fails to take account of the individual needs of the children concerned. The NCSE recommended that a new model would be developed through which resources would be provided to schools on the basis of profiled needs of each school.

As part the recent Budget announcements, I announced that following development and piloting over the past number of years, a new model for the allocation of teaching resources for children with special educational needs will be implemented from September 2017. An additional €18 million will be provided in 2017 to provide for around 900 resource teacher posts, which represents the period of 2017 from September to the end of the year. Further details regarding implementation of the new model were announced earlier today.