Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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766. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional special educational teachers that have been hired this academic year; and the number of additional special educational teachers that will be hired for the 2021-2022 academic year. [31158/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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A total of 13,623 Special Education Teachers are currently allocated to provide additional teaching support to pupils who have additional learning needs, or special educational needs, and who attend mainstream primary or post primary school classes.

Of this total figure, an additional 95 posts of these post were allocated to schools over the course of the 2020/21 school year.

For the coming school year, in order to minimise disruption and upheaval for schools as much as possible in light of Covid-19, and to provide for continuity of allocations, the existing Special Education Teacher Allocations for schools will be maintained for the 2021/22 school year, with re-profiled allocations now due to be made from September 2022.

This means that schools will not have to engage in an extensive redeployment of posts, or re-clustering, this year.

It also means that schools will have greater levels of certainty as to the staff that they will have in place for September.

No school will see a cut, or reduction, to their special education teaching support next year.

Additional allocations will continue to be made for new schools, schools which achieve developing status, and for exceptional circumstances. Schools that qualify for additional mainstream developing school posts also qualify for additional special education teaching allocations to take account of this developing status.

If a school considers that exceptional circumstances have arisen in their school, which means that they cannot provide for the special educational teaching needs of pupils due to very significant changes to the school profile occurring, a school may seek a review of their allocations by the NCSE.

As the number of schools which will qualify for developing school allocations, or new allocations as a result of exceptional needs reviews, is not yet known, it is not possible to advise at this point how many additional allocations will be made for schools over the course of the 2021/22 school year.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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767. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional special needs assistants who have been hired this academic year; and the number of additional special needs assistants who will be hired for the 2021-2022 academic year. [31159/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for Government. The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.

My Department will spend approximately €2 Billion, or over 20% of its total educational budget on making additional provision for children with special educational needs in 2021. This represents an increase of over 50% in total expenditure since 2011, at which point €1.247 Billion per annum was provided.

Budget 2021 provided for an additional 990 additional SNAs for allocation to schools, bringing the total numbers to 18,000 by December 2021. This will represent an increase of increase of 70% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available.

This allocation of SNAs is to meet the care needs of pupils in 2021 and will enable the establishment of new special classes, creation of new places in special schools, support for children in mainstream classes for the 2021/22 school year. The majority of these posts will be allocated in September for the new school year. There have been 103 SNA posts allocated to date from Budget 2021 SNA allocation.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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768. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional special needs assistants who have been hired since budget day in October 2020. [31160/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for Government. The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.

My Department will spend approximately €2 Billion, or over 20% of its total educational budget on making additional provision for children with special educational needs in 2021. This represents an increase of over 50% in total expenditure since 2011, at which point €1.247 Billion per annum was provided.

Budget 2021 provided for an additional 990 additional SNAs for allocation to schools, bringing the total numbers to 18,000 by December 2021. This will represent an increase of increase of 70% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available.

This allocation of SNAs is to meet the care needs of pupils in 2021 and will enable the establishment of new special classes, creation of new places in special schools, support for children in mainstream classes for the 2021/22 school year. The majority of these posts will be allocated in September for the new school year. There have been 103 SNA positions allocated to date from Budget 2021 SNA allocation.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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769. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if all of the funding provided for in budget 2021 for the hiring of additional special needs assistants has been utilised since that announcement. [31161/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for Government. The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.

My Department will spend approximately €2 Billion, or over 20% of its total educational budget on making additional provision for children with special educational needs in 2021. This represents an increase of over 50% in total expenditure since 2011, at which point €1.247 Billion per annum was provided.

Budget 2021 provided for an additional 990 additional SNAs for allocation to schools, bringing the total numbers to 18,000 by December 2021. This will represent an increase of increase of 70% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available.

This allocation of SNAs is to meet the care needs of pupils in 2021 and will enable the establishment of new special classes, creation of new places in special schools, support for children in mainstream classes for the 2021/22 school year. The majority of these posts will be allocated in September for the new school year. There have been 103 SNA positions allocated to date from Budget 2021 SNA allocation.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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770. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of changing all teaching principals of mainstream primary schools with special classes to administrative status. [31162/21]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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771. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching principals of mainstream primary schools with one special class; and the number of teaching principals of mainstream primary schools with two or more special classes. [31163/21]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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772. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of changing all teaching principals of mainstream primary schools with two or more special classes to administrative status. [31164/21]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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773. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of changing teaching principals of mainstream primary schools with one special class to a job share leadership arrangement. [31165/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 770 to 773, inclusive, together.

The criteria for the appointment of an administrative principal to schools, which are enrolment based, are set out in Appendix B of the annual staffing circular.

Schools operating two Autism special classes have a reduced enrolment requirement for the appointment of an Administrative Principal.

Currently, 86 schools with teaching principals have one special class and 25 schools with teaching principals have two or more special classes. The provision of an additional teaching post to schools with one special class to allow for administrative status would cost approximately €4.17 million. The cost of providing administrative status to Teaching Principals with two or more special classes would cost in the region of €1.22 million, while allocating an Administrative Principal to every school with at least one special class would cost approximately €5.39 million.