Written answers

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs

Photo of Fiona O'LoughlinFiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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366. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the new resource allocation model; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36482/17]

Photo of Fiona O'LoughlinFiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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367. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the process by which appeals may be made by schools against resource allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36483/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard 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 model replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, and 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 model provides one single allocation to schools based on the profile. Schools will be frontloaded with resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils who need such support.

The NCSE notified all schools of their special education teaching allocations for September 2017 on 7th March 2017.

The NCSE also published details of the appeals process on the NCSE website: www.ncse.ie.

Schools who wished to submit an appeal were asked to do so by March 31st 2017.

Schools could appeal whether the data used to calculate their school profile was correct and complete and whether it was correctly applied in the calculation of their 2017/18 allocation.

DES Circulars 0013/2017 and 0014/2017 outline the basis on which the Education Research Centre determined the allocations for all schools.

In advance of any submission of an appeal, schools were asked to read carefully the DES Circulars and in particular the relevant sections, which relate to the breakdown of the allocation, which may be under consideration for appeal.

The NCSE is now concluding the appeal process and it is hoped that decisions will issue to schools in the coming days.

The model will also 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.

It is acknowledged that there are circumstances which may arise in schools, which fall outside the appeals process put in place by the NCSE in March 2017(NCSE 03/2017) to support the new special education teaching model. This includes circumstances where the school profile significantly changes following the allocation process e.g., a developing school where the net enrolment numbers significantly increase year on year.

Schools have recently been advised of the qualifying criteria for such allocations. Schools who qualify for additional allocations on the grounds that they will receive additional developing posts in accordance with the primary and post primary staffing schedules for 2017, will also provisionally receive additional special education teaching allocations, less any retained element contained within their profiled allocation.

Schools which have qualified for additional allocations on the grounds of developing status will  be notified of these allocations.

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.

Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers to address the need of pupils with special educational needs have also now been published and are available on my Department's website.

The Guidelines will support schools to reflect on how they can review and manage their timetabling practices to ensure the timetable is sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all pupils in their school who have special needs. The Guidelines encourage schools to ensure they deploy their resources appropriately to meet the needs of all of the children in their school who require additional teaching support, including pupils with emerging needs, or new entrants.

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