Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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169. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 318 of 2 May 2017, the reason a school (details supplied) has not been allocated enough SNA teaching hours to meet demand within the school. [25324/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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It is important to clarify that Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support and Low Incidence Teaching Hours (LITH) are separate and distinct special educational needs supports which are allocated to recognised schools to support pupils with special educational needs.

SNA support is provided to schools to assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs.  SNAs do not have a teaching role.  SNA 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, as set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.

This Circular clarifies the role of the Classroom Teacher and Resource/Learning Support Teachers, which is to provide for the education of a child, and the role of an SNA, which is to support those teachers in assisting with care needs.  The classroom teacher is responsible for educating all pupils in his/her class, including any pupil with a special educational need.  Additional teaching support is, however, also allocated to recognised mainstream schools to support pupils with special educational needs.  Such additional teaching support is made in addition to any SNA provision ensuring that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

Where a school or parent wish to appeal the level of SNA support which has been made to their school/child respectively, they may do so via the NCSE SNA appeals process which is available at: www.ncse.ie. 

Up to and including this school year, all mainstream Primary schools have been allocated additional teaching resources under the General Allocation Model (GAM) to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs.  Separately, pupils who are diagnosed within the low incidence category i.e. those with more complex needs as defined by my Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05, were supported through an allocation of individual additional resource teaching hours allocated by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). 

A new model for allocating special education teachers to primary schools has been introduced for the coming school year (2017/18) as set out in Circular 0013/2017. Allocations issued to all schools on 7th March and details have also been published on the NCSE website at: http://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Special-Education-Teacher-Allocation-Primary-2017_18-updated-30_03_2017.pdf. 

This new model will give greater autonomy to schools to allocate resources to the pupils who most need these resources, regardless of their diagnosis.

No school will receive an allocation for the support of current pupils with complex needs which is less than the allocation they had received to support pupils with low incidence special educational needs in the preceding year. This means that schools can continue to support students in line with their needs.

In circumstances where a parent is dissatisfied as to the extent of additional teaching support which has been allocated to their child under this new model for 2017/18 school year, the parent should raise the matter with the school Principal in the first instance.  Where a parent is dissatisfied with the manner in which the issue is addressed by the school Principal, the parent should raise the matter directly with the Board of Management of the School, who are the body which has responsibility for the management of the school.