Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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84. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure that all children approved for resource hours will receive the allocated number of hours; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the new resource teaching allocation model may result in some children losing some hours; and if he will ensure that these hours remain in place per child irrespective of the number of pupils that leave the school. [14653/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools were published on 7th March 2017.

These Circulars set out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.

The revised allocation process replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, combined with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocation process which provided additional resource teaching supports to schools, to support pupils assessed as having Low Incidence disabilities.

The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.

Allocations based on the school profiles were issued to all schools on 7th March while details of the special education teaching allocations have been published on the NCSE website.

For the introduction of the new allocation model, from September 2017, the NCSE ‘Low Incidence’ allocations which had been made for each school during the preceding 2016/17 school year, have been used to establish the complex needs component of the new model for each school.

This means that on the introduction of the new allocation model and until allocations are reviewed, no school will receive an allocation, for the support of pupils with complex needs, which is less than the allocation they had received to support pupils with Low Incidence special educational needs during the 2016/17 school year.

This also means that no allocation for pupils made by the NCSE will be removed from schools as long as that pupil remains in the school.

Whereas schools will have greater discretion as to how they can distribute resources under the new model, based on the individual needs of pupils, no reduction in allocations have been made to schools in respect of any pupils who were previously in receipt of a Low Incidence special needs allocation in that school.

Under the previous General Allocation Model, each school decided the level of support required to be provided to children with learning difficulties and certain special educational needs e.g. high incidence special educational needs. We know that schools have done this well.

We also know that under the pilot of the new allocation model that was conducted in 2015/16 that schools welcomed the discretion that they had to allocate resources under the new allocation model to pupils based on their individual learning needs, as opposed to primarily based on a diagnosis of a disability.

A category of disability, by itself, does not identify how much support a child should receive – two students, with the same disability can need completely different levels of support.

Schools use their own knowledge of their students to allocate teaching supports and they can also call on a wide number of support services to assist them. These include the Visiting Teacher Service, NEPS, Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) and other support services such as the Special Educational Support Services. Under the new allocation model, schools will continue to receive guidance when making decisions about supporting students’ learning needs.

Guidelines for schools on supporting children with special educational needs under the new allocation model are also currently being prepared and will be published shortly.

Under the new model, schools will be guided as to how to identify pupils for additional teaching support and how to prioritise pupils for support taking into account the extent of their learning needs in order to ensure the appropriate level of support is being given to the child. Schools should inform parents about this process and how to request a review of their child’s additional teaching support, if this is required.

However, despite these measures, some parents, might still disagree with the level of support being given to their child. In such cases parents should discuss this first with their child’s class /subject teacher or his/her support teacher.

If parents remain unhappy with the level of support being given to their child in a school they may then raise this issue with the school principal and if necessary, at a later point with the Chairperson of the school Board of Management, who are the body which has responsibility for the management of the school.

The Guidelines for Schools Supporting Pupils with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools, which are due to be published shortly will support schools in identifying and addressing the needs of children with special education needs and also in monitoring their deployment of resources to meet those needs.

The Guidelines have drawn on best practice to assist schools to allocate the greatest level of resources to the pupils with the highest levels of needs. The school self-evaluation process also supports schools to examine their own practices in the area of special education, to identify what is working well but also to identify areas that require improvement. Schools will set targets for improvement and implement agreed actions at a whole-school level. This process will enable schools to monitor their deployment of resources in area of special education needs.