Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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74. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which, under the new model for allocation of resource teaching hours in primary and secondary schools, children who received diagnoses in the school year 2016 to 2017 will receive resource teaching hours from September 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10120/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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On 18th January last, I announced that a new model for allocating Special Education Teaching Resources to mainstream primary and post primary schools will be introduced from September 2017.

The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Large amounts of research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.

A new Circular will be issued to schools in the coming weeks which will provide details of how the scheme will operate while details of the allocations for each school will also be provided to schools.

Schools will also be provided with guidance on how to manage their resources to ensure that all pupils who have additional learning needs can be provided with support.  

A series of information days on the new model are being arranged regionally, to which all schools will be invited while schools may also discuss how the new model operates with their NCSE Special Educational Needs Officer.

No school will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. In addition, no school will receive an allocation, for the support of pupils with low incidence disabilities, less than the allocation they received to support such pupils during the 2016/17 school year. No allocation made for such pupils by the NCSE will be removed from schools as long as that pupil remains in the school.

I also announced that an additional 900 teaching posts will be provided to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools. This is additional to an increase of 41% in the number of resource teachers allocated to schools annually by the NCSE since 2011, when 5265 teachers were allocated, as opposed to provision for 7542 posts in the current school year.

The additional funding will provide additional supports to over 1000 schools who are identified as needing additional supports as a result of the new model. Supports for children with special educational needs is a huge priority for this Government. We currently spend €1.6billion, or one fifth of the total education budget, on supports for children with special educational needs.

This additional investment will ensure that all schools receive a sufficient allocation of special education needs resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils in their school who require such support. 

Under the new allocation model schools will be provided with total allocation which includes a baseline allocation for the school and an allocation based on the school profile.

The provision of a profiled allocation will give a fairer allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the actual level of need in each school.

Schools will be frontloaded with resources, based on each school's profile, to provide supports immediately to those pupils who need it without delay.  This will reduce the administrative burden on schools as schools will no longer have to complete an application process annually and apply for newly enrolled pupils who require resource hours. Children who need support can have that support provided immediately rather than having to wait for a diagnosis.

Schools will therefore no longer have to make applications, for newly enrolled pupils for whom resource teaching hours may have been provided under the old model, as school will now receive a single allocation for all of their special education teaching needs, based on their school size and profile.  This includes provision for junior infants who are newly enrolling to the school or pupils who may transfer from another school such as those to whom the Deputy referred. 

It should be noted that this is a brand new model of allocation and is not comparable to the existing model. By using a broad range of attainment and socio-economic criteria, it is expected that generally, a school’s profile will remain relatively constant from year to year.  Each year, some students with additional teaching needs will leave and others will enrol, broadly balancing the school profile. Resources allocated under this model will not normally be adjusted between allocations.

The model will, however, allow for some additional provision for exceptional circumstances or where a school’s enrolment levels increase very substantially prior to the next review of the model. The Inclusion Support Service, established under the National Council for Special Education will support schools in managing their special education teaching allocations in the first instance. Only in very exceptional circumstances, where it can be demonstrated that the schools profile has changed very significantly since the allocation was made to the school, may an additional allocation of hours be made to the school.