Written answers

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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54. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which special needs requirements as set out by the relevant school authorities continue to be met in full at primary and second-level schools throughout the country including County Kildare; if any particular delays are being experienced in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35278/21]

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha 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 on making additional provision for children with special educational needs in 2021.

This year we are providing for two new special schools and 269 new special classes.

For the 2021/22 school year we will have a total of 2118 special classes, which is the largest number of special classes that we have ever had, and compares to 548 classes available in 2011.

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

NCSE is planning a further expansion of special class and special school places nationally, to meet identified need. This process is ongoing.

It is open to any school to make an application to the NCSE for the establishment of a specialized provision and where sanctioned, a range of supports, including capital funding, is made available to the school.

The investment has also provided for an increase of 40% in the number of special education teachers allocated to schools, from 9,740 in 2011, to over 13,600 at present.

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.

Under the allocation model, schools have been provided with a total allocation for special education needs support based on their school profile.

The provision of a profiled allocation is designed to give a fair allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the level of need in each school.

A process is available where schools can seek a review of their allocations by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), including the utilisation of their allocations, in circumstances where a school considers that very exceptional circumstances have arisen subsequent to the development of the profile.

A school that decides to make an exceptional needs review appeal can do so at the following link: ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Primary-Schools-Review-Application-2020.doc

The additional investment in provision for special education teachers, combined with reform of the mechanism for allocating special education teachers to schools, based on the profiled needs of schools, means that special needs teacher requirement can continue to be met nationally, including for schools in County Kildare.

The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills.

SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management of the school. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated.

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.

Where circumstances change during the course of the 2021/22 school year that materially increase the level of care need in a school to the extent that the school can clearly demonstrate that it cannot be met within the existing SNA allocation, the school may apply to the NCSE for a review. Detailed information on the NCSE exceptional review process is published on the NCSE website ncse.ie/for-schools

Circular 0029/2021 has been published and advises schools of the arrangements for the allocation of SNAs for the 2021/22 school year. SNA allocations for special classes and special schools are not affected by this arrangement.

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