Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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213. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps being taken to ensure that a child (details supplied) in County Cork with additional needs receives an appropriate second-level school place for the 2020/2021 school year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4486/20]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Ensuring that every child has a suitable school placement is a key objective of my Department. Significant resources are allocated each year to ensure that appropriate supports are available for children with special educational needs.

Since 2011, the number of special classes in mainstream schools has increased almost threefold, from 548 to 1,618 for the 2019/2020 school year; with 1,353 of these catering for children with autism.

There are 195 special classes and 13 special schools in the Cork area providing specialist support to children with more complex special educational needs.

A list of special classes for September 2019 is available on the NCSE website.

Budget 2020 provided for an additional 265 special class teachers in 2020, which will allow for the opening of additional classes where required.

The NCSE has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide; has well established structures in place for engaging with schools and parents; and seeks to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all children who have been identified as needing special class placements.

It is open to any school to make an application to the NCSE for the establishment of a specialised provision and where sanctioned, a range of supports, including capital funding, is made available to the school. In considering these applications, however, the NSCE, in conjunction with the school buildings unit of my Department, will be required to take into account the capacity of a school to establish such a class, including the provision of sufficient accommodation space within the school.

As the school referred to by the Deputy is currently in temporary accommodation, it has not been possible for the school to establish special class provision currently. A development plan for the school for future years will be required to address this issue. The school should therefore continue to engage with the NCSE in relation to this matter, and in the context of its capacity for ongoing development, as the NSCE is currently considering the additional special class placements which will be required for the 2020/21 school year.

The NCSE is aware that a number of students in this school have professional reports recommending special class placement, including the student referred to by the Deputy.

The school was provided with 2 additional Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) for this school year and recently had its special education teaching (S.E.T.) allocation increased, following an exceptional review of this allocation.

The NCSE's Local Special Education Needs Organisers (SENOs) are available to assist and advise both the school and the parents of the student in relation to special class provision in other schools in the area.

As this question relates to an individual student, I have arranged for it to be referred to the NCSE for direct reply.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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214. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps being taken to ensure that a child (details supplied) in County Cork with additional needs secures an appropriate primary school place for the 2020-21 school year and beyond; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4499/20]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Ensuring that every child has a suitable school placement is a key objective of my Department. Significant resources are allocated each year to ensure that appropriate supports are available for children with special educational needs.

Since 2011, the number of special classes in mainstream schools has increased almost threefold, from 548 to 1,618 for the 2019/2020 school year; with 1,353 of these catering for children with autism.

There are 195 special classes and 13 special schools in the Cork area providing specialist support to children with more complex special educational needs.

A list of special classes for September 2019 is available on the NCSE website.

Budget 2020 provided for an additional 265 special class teachers in 2020, which will allow for the opening of additional classes where required.

The NCSE has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide; has well established structures in place for engaging with schools and parents; and seeks to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all children who have been identified as needing special class placements.

It is open to any school to make an application to the NCSE for the establishment of a specialised provision and where sanctioned, a range of supports, including capital funding, is made available to the school. My Department works closely with the NCSE in this regard.

The NCSE is planning a further expansion of special class and school places nationally, including Cork, to meet identified need for next year. This process is ongoing.

Normally, special class and school places are established with the full cooperation of the schools in areas where they are required. However there are some parts of the country where the NCSE has faced challenges in getting schools and their patrons to voluntarily agree to provide special class or school places. I know that this can cause much anguish for parents and families involved.

As Minister I have power under Section 37A of the Education Act 1998 to direct a school to provide additional provision where all reasonable efforts have failed. This legislation has been used to good effect in the recent past.

The NCSE has recently advised that there is a shortage of a small number of special class places in certain areas in Co Cork, largely due to geographic reasons rather than a shortage in the county as a whole. The NCSE is seeking to accommodate these students in schools in the surrounding areas.

The NCSE's Local Special Education Needs Organisers (SENOs) are available to assist and advise both schools and the parents of children with special educational needs in relation to special class provision.

As the Deputy's question relates to special class placement for an individual pupil, this has been referred to the NCSE for direct reply.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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215. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if SNA allocations will progress as normal in 2020 or if unnecessary delays will take place whilst Government formation talks take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4514/20]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Schools have been notified of the arrangements for the allocation of SNA support in respect of students in mainstream classes for 2020/21. The arrangements include the following provisions:

- 2019/20 mainstream class SNA allocations will be frozen, from the date of issue of Circular 0030/2020, and will automatically rollover into the 2020/21 school year. This means that no school will receive an allocation less than that which they have on the date of issue of this Circular and existing SNAs currently in standard SNA posts can continue in these posts for the next school year in the normal way.

- Schools may apply to the NCSE for additionality where they can demonstrate that the current allocation does not meet additional care needs within the mainstream classes in the school. Applications for additionality arising from significant new or emerging additional care needs, which cannot be catered within existing allocations, will be dealt with by way of an exceptional review process.

- A diagnosis of a disability, or a psychological or other professional report, will not be necessary for this process.

- The role of the SNA to support the care needs of students in mainstream classes, as set out in Circular 0030/2014, remains unchanged.

It is expected that schools will review and reprioritise the deployment of SNAs within mainstream settings and allocate resources to ensure those with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support. Providing access to SNA support continues to be based on primary care needs as outlined in DES Circular 0030/2014.

Detailed information on the NCSE exceptional review process is published on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie.

The NCSE will endeavour to respond to all applications for exceptional review received prior to 22nd May 2020 by 30th June 2020 and in that regard, it will prioritise applications from schools with no current SNA allocation and developing schools. Applications for an Exceptional Review received after 22 May 2020 will continue to be processed once all other applications have been completed.

The exceptional review process for mainstream allocations will be available to schools throughout the 2020/21 school year.

As this question relates to a particular school, I have referred the question to the NCSE for their direct reply. I do not have a role in making determinations in individual cases.

A new frontloading model for allocating Special Needs Assistants to primary and post primary schools for students in mainstream classes only was to be introduced in the 2020/21 school year as part of the phased roll out of the School Inclusion Model (SIM). Due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 public health crisis, the introduction of the model has been deferred for one year.