Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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501. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the work she is undertaking to ensure that children with additional needs who attend a school (details supplied) have adequate supports for the coming school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18282/22]

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.

Very significant levels of financial provision are made to ensure that children with special educational needs can be provided with an education appropriate to their needs.

The State currently spends in excess of 25% of its annual education and training budget (€9.2 Billion) on making additional provision for children with special educational needs.

This represents an increase of over 60% in total expenditure since 2011, at which point €1.247 Billion per annum was provided.

Since 2011, the number of special classes in mainstream schools has increased by almost 386% from 548 to 2,118 for the 2021/2022 school year. Of these 1,524 special classes are in primary schools.

Budget 2022 announced details of €9.2 billion in funding for education and includes 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% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available.

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.

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.

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 National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. 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.

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.

I have asked the NCSE to engage directly with the school in question.