Written answers

Thursday, 29 March 2018

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if immediate funding will be provided for a school (details supplied) for necessary appointments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14268/18]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for determining the appropriate staffing levels in special schools.

Enhanced pupil teacher and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) ratios are provided to special schools to support them in dealing with pupil’s educational and care needs.

In accordance with Circular 0042/2011, special schools are staffed based on their actual current pupil profiles and the disability category of each pupil, as opposed to primarily by school designation, in recognition that many special schools now enroll students from disability categories other than those provided for by their original school designations.

This process means that it is for school authorities to determine its staffing requirements in accordance with the curricular requirements of the cohort of students attending the school which includes how best to use that resource to cater for art, drama, music and indeed other curricular content.

When making decisions on staff recruitment, special schools should consider that a primary teacher is qualified to teach the full range of subjects as set out in the Primary School Curriculum, whereas a post-primary qualified teacher is usually a specialist in a limited number of subject areas. Arts education, which is part of the current primary curriculum, encompasses a range of activities in the visual arts, music, drama, dance and literature.

I regret that no additional teaching allocation can be made to facilitate the changes proposed by the school.

DEIS is my Department’s main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage and in particular concentrated levels of disadvantage and is only available in mainstream schools. The rationale for allocating resources and supports based on a schools’ level of concentrated disadvantage is based on the existence of a ‘multiplier effect’ whereby students attending a school where disadvantage is concentrated have poorer academic outcomes.

The Home School Community Liaison scheme is an initiative which is specific to DEIS schools in recognition of the support required to break down barriers experienced by children from socio-economic backgrounds in both attending and participating in mainstream education through the meaningful engagement of parents.

The provision of therapy interventions such as play, music and drama therapy are not within the remit of my Department.

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