Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of places for special needs students available at primary and second level schools throughout counties Sligo and Leitrim; the extent to which further improvements are required in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13357/17]

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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303. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which adequate school places are available at primary and second level for children with autism in counties Sligo and Leitrim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13358/17]

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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304. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which adequate special needs assistants are available throughout both primary and second level schools in counties Sligo and Leitrim; the extent to which it is expected to address specific deficiencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13359/17]

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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305. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he is taking to continue to monitor special needs teaching requirements of teachers and special needs assistants at primary and second level in all schools throughout counties Sligo and Leitrim; the extent to which he expects to be in position to meet the increased demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13360/17]

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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306. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the degree to which children with autism continue to have ready access to primary and second level school places in counties Sligo and Leitrim; the extent to which any difficulties have arisen in meeting the ongoing requirements in both counties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13361/17]

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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312. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he is taking to ensure adequate resource teachers remain available throughout all schools in counties Sligo and Leitrim; his plans for augmentation in specific areas of particular need; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13367/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 to 306, inclusive, and 312 together.

Funding for special education provision in 2017 is estimated to amount to some €1.68 billion, which is equivalent to over 19% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training and an increase of 12% in spending in the past two years. This funding provides for a range of supports and services including additional learning and resource teaching support, access to Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, special transport arrangements, building adaptations, enhanced capitation in special schools and special classes, specialised equipment, additional teacher training and the services of the National Educational Psychological Service.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from schools for Special Educational Needs supports.

Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are allocated to mainstream Primary, Post Primary schools and to Special Schools to assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills.

At my request, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) are currently undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the Special Needs Assistant Scheme and I have specifically asked the NCSE to identify the most appropriate form of support options to provide better outcomes for students with Special Educational Needs, having regard to the significant amount of State investment in this area.

As part the Budget announcements, I announced that an additional 115 Special Needs Assistants (SNA) posts at an annual cost of €3.75m will be provided for allocation in 2017, bringing the total number of SNAs available for allocation to schools to 13,015 to the end of 2017. This represents an increase of 23% over the numbers available in 2011, which was 10,575. This is a higher level of SNA support than ever before, which ensures that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

There are over 12,500 Learning Support and Resource Teacher posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools for the 2016/2017 school year of which 7430 are Resource Teaching posts. This represents an increase of 41% in the number of resource teachers which have been allocated since the 2011/12 school year, at which point 5265 posts were allocated.  In addition, over 5000 learning support posts have been allocated to schools under the General Allocation Model for primary schools and Learning Support allocations for post primary schools.

A new model for allocating Special Education Teaching Resources to mainstream primary and post primary schools has been introduced and will commence in schools 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.

An additional €18 million will be provided in 2017 to provide for around 900 additional resource teacher posts.

The NCSE, in consultation with the relevant education partners, also has responsibility for the establishment of special classes in various geographical areas, as required and must take into account the present and future potential need, location and sustainability in looking to establish special classes in certain areas.  The NCSE is currently engaging with schools in opening special classes where there is an identified need for special class provision.

There are currently 1,153 Special Classes in place, in comparison to 548 in 2011, with approximately 150 new classes having been made available for the current school year.

The NCSE has advised that there are 14 special classes for children with autism in Counties Sligo and Leitrim. These special classes offer a supportive learning environment to students with ASD who are unable to access the curriculum in a mainstream class, even with support, for most or all of their school day. Special class for students with ASD are staffed with a lower pupil–teacher ratio of 6:1 at primary level and 6:1.5 at post primary level, and also have Special Needs Assistant support normally amounting to 2 SNAs for a class of 6 children.

Details of all special classes for children with special educational needs, including those in Counties Sligo and Leitrim, are available on www.ncse.ie in county order.

In recent years, the NCSE has provided my Department with a number of policy advice papers on the provision of supports for children with special needs, all of which are available on the NCSE’s website.

It is intended to bring into effect many improvements to the provision of special educational needs support, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice.

I can confirm that this Government will continue to ensure that the supports required, to ensure that all children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education, will be provided.

The NCSE has published details of the SNA and Resource Teaching Posts allocated to schools, including schools in Counties Sligo and Leitrim, for the current school year, 2016/2017, on its website www.ncse.ie.