Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the 980 special education teacher positions announced in Budget 2022 will be filled; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51334/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Investment in special education is an ongoing priority for this Government. 

Budget 2022 provides for the creation 980 new teaching posts in special education.  This new investment is required to meet the needs of students with special educational needs enrolled in mainstream classes; students to be enrolled in new special classes and new special school places and the needs of new and developing schools. 

The new allocation is broken down as follows:

- 620 of the new posts will provide additional support for children attending mainstream classes including new and expanding schools.

- 360 posts will facilitate the opening of 287 new special classes providing over 1,700 new places in 2022 and 140 new special school places

A new model for allocating special education teachers in respect of students with special needs enrolled in mainstream classes was introduced in 2017.  The Special Education Teacher allocation process provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.  The profile of each school takes account of enrolments and a number of other factors that are considered to be indicative of the level of need in each school. There is a commitment to update profiles on a regular basis with the last update being for the 2019/20 school.

In addition, there is a provision for schools to seek additionality through the Exceptional Needs Review process if there is a significant change in their level of need in between profile updates.

The additional 620 SET posts will be allocated to schools based on updated SET school profiles in 2022. 

The criteria for qualification for mainstream school developing school posts are set out in the Primary and Post Primary School Staffing Schedule for the 2021/22 school 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.