Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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116. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will discuss the difficulties new and developing schools are facing in accessing special educational supports. [45694/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of concerns raised by a number of schools with growing enrolments regarding their special education teacher allocation.

There are now over 13,600 Special Education Teachers allocated to mainstream primary and post primary schools.

This represents an increase of 40% in the total number of special education teachers allocated to schools since 2011, at which time 9,740 teachers were allocated.

The allocations are based on the profiled needs of schools, and are designed to be updated, based on new school profile data, every 2-3 years.

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 is being maintained for the 2021/22 school year, with re-profiled allocations now due to be made from September 2022.

The allocations for 2021/22 which are being maintained comprise the allocations made for schools from September 2019 plus any additionality achieved since and any developing hours for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years.

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

It also means that schools had greater levels of certainty as to the staff that were in place for September.

It is important to note that no school saw a cut, or reduction, to their special education teaching support for 2021/22.

Additional allocations 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.

For the 2021/22 school year, in order to support schools to plan for their staffing arrangements in September, the DES/NCSE brought forward the developing schools allocation process, by initially making provisional allocations for schools

The provisional additional allocations were based on schools projected enrolments, where schools have projected that they will receive developing allocations, based on the criteria below. The allocation of these additional hours will be confirmed once the increased enrolments are confirmed.

The criteria for qualification for mainstream school developing school posts are set out in the DES Circular Primary and Post Primary School Staffing Schedules each year.

Schools who qualify for additional mainstream developing school posts in accordance with these criteria, also qualify for additional Special Education Teaching Allocations to take account of this developing status, as follows:

- an additional 3 hours of SEN teaching support will be provided for schools which have one developing post, or for a schools first developing post where they have more than one developing post

- and 5 hours per each post thereafter, for each school which has two or more developing posts

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.

My Department continues to engage with Education partners to consider concerns in relation to the existing process for providing additional supports to developing schools and to establish if any improvements can be made to the process.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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117. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the progress of the recruitment of additional special needs assistants outlined in Budget 2021; the number of special needs assistants currently employed by county; the way this compares with annual figures for the previous ten years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45503/21]

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 are at unprecedented levels.

The 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 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 children in mainstream classes for the 2021/22 school year.

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.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible for the planning and coordination of education provision for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNA posts.

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

The NCSE publish statistics on SNA allocations to primary, post primary and special schools in tabular form, by county, for each school year, this information is available on their website, www.ncse.ie.

Special Needs Assistants are employed by schools. Information on appointments made is not collected from schools.

The Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations. Accordingly your question has been forwarded to the NCSE for direct reply.