Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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179. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25494/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Additional teaching supports for pupils with special educational needs in primary schools are currently provided through two channels.  The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), has up to and including the current school year, allocated Low Incidence Teaching Hours (LITH) to schools to support children who have an identified special educational need within the low incidence, or more complex, category of special need, as defined by the Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05. 

Separately, all mainstream Primary schools have a permanent allocation of additional teaching support, under the General Allocation Model (GAM), to cater for pupils whose educational psychological assessment place them in the high incidence disability category.  It is a matter for individual schools to use their professional judgement to identify pupils who will receive this support and to use the resources made 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. 

Pupils with Dyslexia & ADHD can avail of additional teaching support/learning support from within the school’s current level of GAM support.  Parents should discuss with the school Principal in the first instance, or with the Board of Management of the school as to how a pupil can be supported under the school’s general allocation. It is a matter for schools to monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils, in accordance with my Department's guidance including Circular Sp Ed 02/05 - Organisation of Teaching Resources for Pupils who need Additional Support in Mainstream Primary Schools and the National Educational Psychological Services (NEPS) Continuum of Support Guidelines.  The teaching time afforded to each individual pupil is decided and managed by schools, taking into account each child's individual learning needs. 

The new model for allocating special education teachers to schools which has been introduced for the 2017/18 school year, replaces teaching resources allocated under the Low Incidence Teaching Hours and the General Allocation Model for primary schools.  The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs.  Substantial research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all of the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children. 

The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for allocating special educational teaching support to schools.  Allocations based on the school profiles issued to all schools on 7th March, details have also been published on the NCSE website.  My Department’s Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools sets out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.  

The 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 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 complex needs, 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 am informed by the NCSE that an application for LITH support was received after the allocation process for 2016-2017 concluded; heretofore, that application would have been considered for the 2017/18 allocations process.  All schools, including the school in question, have received their allocation under the new model for 2017/18. The SENO has explained the new process to the parents of the child in question in a recent email.  The SENO has also had discussions with the school principal in relation to same.   

In circumstances where a parent is dissatisfied as to the extent of additional support teaching time which has been allocated to their child from within a schools allocation, the normal course of action open to a parent would be to raise this matter with the school Principal in the first instance, and to request that additional teaching be provided to their child.