Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration will be given to establishing a working group or taskforce in County Cork to come up with recommendations for preschool enrolment in 2021 given the difficulties with special education provision in the area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45042/20]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government. 

This year, over 20% of the total Education budget or €2bn will be invested in supporting children with special educational needs.   As a result, the numbers of special education teachers, SNAs and special class and school places are at unprecedented levels. 

Through better planning at both national and local level, it is my objective that specialist education places should come on stream to meet emerging demand on a timely basis. However, the active collaboration of school communities is essential in this regard. 

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. NCSE is planning a further expansion of special class and special school places nationally, to meet identified need. This process is ongoing.

Notwithstanding the extent of the investment in special education and the supports which have been put in place, I am also very conscious that there are some parts of the country, including Cork, where increases in population and other issues have led to concerns regarding a shortage of school places.

I can assure the Deputy that NCSE is acutely aware of these concerns and is continuing its engagement with schools, patron bodies, parents and other stakeholders to bring the required additional special education placements on stream.

My Department will continue to support the NCSE and schools through the provision of the necessary funding and capital investment to ensure all children are successful in accessing an education and I want to reassure you that the delivery of the necessary additional provision is being progressed as an absolute priority.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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456. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children with an ASD diagnosis being educated in mainstream classrooms by county in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45043/20]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that Special Education Teachers support the mainstream class teacher by providing additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs, or additional learning needs, in schools.

DES Circular 007/2019 for primary schools and 008/2019 for post primary schools set out the details of the model for allocating special education teachers to schools.

The Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile. This model has replaced the previous model of allocating resource teaching support and learning support to schools.

The Special Education Teacher allocation, allows schools to provide additional teaching support for all pupils who require such support in their schools and for schools to deploy resources based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.

It gives greater flexibility to schools as to how they can deploy their resources, to take account of the actual learning needs pupils have, as opposed to being guided by a particular diagnosis of disability, and schools are guided as to how they should make such allocation decisions.

The school will take account of learning needs of children as evidenced by performance in schools but also supported where relevant by information provided regarding the nature of a condition that a pupil may have.

The Department of Education and Skills has published guidelines for schools as to how they should utilise and deploy their resources under the new allocation model, which are available at www.education.ie. 

The guidelines support schools in how they identify pupils for additional teaching support and decide how much support to provide for pupils who need it. 

Under the special education teacher allocation model schools are frontloaded with resources, based on each schools profile, to provide supports immediately to those pupils who need it without delay.

Children who need support can have that support provided immediately rather than having to wait for a diagnosis.

Children do not have to be labelled with a particular condition to qualify for extra teaching assistance.

The model gives greater freedom to schools to give extra teaching help to the pupils who most need it, regardless of their diagnosis.

Schools also do not have to give a set amount of time to pupils based on their disability category. They can give the most assistance to the pupils who need the support most and allocate resources based on needs.

Children who have additional learning needs in school, including children with Autism who are attending mainstream schools, may receive additional teaching support in schools.

However, as special education teaching support is now allocated to individual pupils at local school level, my Department does not hold details of the number of pupils with particular conditions of SEN who are supported in mainstream schools.

I can advise however, that the National Council for Special education (NCSE), an independent agency of my Department, is responsible for planning, coordinating and advising on education provision for children with special educational needs in consultation with the relevant education partners and the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The NCSE’s policy advice on Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2016) noted a national ASD prevalence rate of 1.55% or 1 in every 65 students.

There were 567,716 students enrolled in Primary schools and 371,450 students enrolled in Post Primary schools in the 2019/20 school year. Enrolment data for the 2020/21 year will be available later in the year.