Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the School referred to by the Deputy and recently met with members of the school staff and community outside Leinster House.  At my request, the NCSE met with the School on Friday last to discuss the issues of concern. At the meeting, the SENO explained the basis for the allocation of SNA support and will also engage with parents in this regard. The School will be provided with access to an upcoming seminar on the deployment of SNA support within a school. It was also agreed that the School's SET allocation would be reviewed as soon as possible.  The SENO will continue to be available to support the School.

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.

Budget 2022 provided funding for an additional 1,165 SNAs (in 2022) to provide support to children with special educational needs, which will bring the total number of SNAs to 19,169 at the end of December 2022.   This represents an increase of 81% since 2011 at which time 10,575 were provided.

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. 

It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised. The general principle is that those students with the greatest level of care need receive the greatest level of support. The NCSE provides guidance and support to schools on this matter.

Where circumstances change during the course of a school year that materially increases 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.

The NCSE manages the exceptional review process and handles each case individually. Some review requests can be concluded as an office based exercise, whilst others require a school to be visited in order to observe the current deployment of SNA support in the school setting.

Where a school is dissatisfied with how their exceptional review has been processed or is dissatisfied with the outcome of their exceptional review they can appeal.