Written answers

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the powers of special educational needs organisers, SENOs, with regard to the allocation of special needs assistant, SNA, resources; if these powers include the ability to remove resources from a school if another school has been allocated additional hours; if his Department records these reductions in resources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41797/18]

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.

The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in Department Circular 0030/2014, which is available on the Department's website at www.education.ie, in order that students who have care needs can access SNA support as and when it is needed.

In considering applications for SNA support for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the pupils' needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources.

SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource.

SNA allocations to all schools can change from year to year as children with care needs leave the school, as new children with care needs enrol in a school and as children develop more independent living skills and their care needs diminish over time.

My Department’s policy is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support.

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