Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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165. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department collects data on the number of children turned down annually for speech and language classes in primary schools despite meeting the qualifying criteria; and if so, the data for each of the years 2010 to 2016 and to date in 2017. [42207/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for the provision of special educational needs supports to schools, including the provision of special classes in mainstream schools. 

Applications to establish speech and language special classes are considered by the school's assigned Special Educational Needs Organiser (SENO) and those meeting the criteria for establishment are approved by the NCSE. The criteria for enrolment in a Special Class for pupils with Specific Speech and Language Disorder (SSLD) is set out in my Department's Circular 0038/2007.

Students with SSLD have access to speech and language therapy services either through the speech and language therapy services provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE), in a special SSLD class setting or through the HSE primary care service. The provision of health supports, including Speech and Language Therapy services, is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive.

A full-time teacher is assigned to each class, and classes operate with a reduced pupil-teacher ratio of 7:1. A minimum number of five eligible pupils is required for a school to retain a SSLD class. Eligible pupils may spend up to two years in such classes.

The NCSE continues to monitor and review the requirement for special class places in particular areas and has capacity to establish such new special classes where necessary, subject to the willingness of schools to open classes. The NCSE welcomes expressions of interest from schools in opening special classes to meet the demand for special class provision. In deciding on the location of a special class SENOs take into account both the present and the future potential need for special class provision and they must be satisfied that the special class is sustainable and appropriately located. SENOs liaise with relevant professionals in their area to arrive at an informed decision. The opening of a Speech and Language class is, however, contingent on the HSE being in a position to provide Speech and Language therapy to the students in the class.

The enrolment of pupils in an SSLD special class is managed locally by an Admissions & Discharges Committee, comprising the Speech and Language Therapy Manager, Speech and Language Therapist, Class Teacher and Principal.

It should be noted that pupils who are not enrolled in a special class for SSLD and who meet the criteria for Specific Speech and Language Disorder, as outlined in Circular 0038/2007, may qualify for additional teaching support under the School's Special Education Teaching Support provision, where he/she is enrolled in a mainstream school. 

A new model for allocating support to pupils with special educational needs has been implemented from September 2017. Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools which was published on 7th March 2017 sets 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. Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers have also been published;

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One of the benefits of this new approach is that schools will have greater flexibility as to how they will deploy their resources.

Pupils with Specific Speech and Language Disorder (SSLD) may, therefore, attend a special class for pupils with SSLD with speech and language therapy services provided in class by the HSE or attend a mainstream school with additional teaching supports and speech & language therapy through the primary care service. 

The Programme for a Partnership Government contains a commitment to establish a new model of In-School Speech and Language Therapy and to examine the adequacy of the present policies and provision, and their scope for improvement, particularly in relation to speech and language difficulties and early intervention.

A joint working group, made up of the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Skills, the Health Service Executive and the National Council for Special Education, has been established to develop the proposed model.When finalised, the proposed model will represent a significant change in the way in which services are delivered.

The information requested by the Deputy is not available, as the NCSE retains data on the number of special classes and the number of students attending only.