Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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345. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 513 of 15 November 2022, if her Department intends to allow special schools to avail of DEIS supports. [58853/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity and has benefits for students.

The process to identify schools for inclusion in the DEIS programme was based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage. It aimed to identify those schools with the highest proportion of students from areas designated as disadvantaged. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie at www.gov.ie/en/publication/a3c9e-extension-of-deis-to-further-schools/#how-schools-were-selected-for-inclusion-in-deis

It is the aim of this Government to ensure that all children with special educational needs have an appropriate school placement and that the necessary supports are provided to our schools to cater for their needs.Special schools receive significant funding and have been resourced to reflect their particular needs. For 2023, the special education budget will be substantially increased by over 10%, meaning that my Department will spend over €2.6 billion on special education. This level of educational funding and support is unprecedented and represents in excess of 27% of the Department of Education’s total allocation.

As a result, the number of special education teachers, special needs assistants and special class and special school places are at unprecedented levels. For the first time ever, we will have over 19,000 teachers working in the area of special education and over 20,000 Special Needs Assistants. Together we have almost 40,000 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.

Staffing ratios in special schools are significantly lower than in mainstream schools and are intended to ensure that the needs of students can be met effectively. These lower ratios generally facilitate greater connection between the schools and families.

There are no current plans to extend the DEIS programme to special schools. My Department will continue to engage with special schools, including through representative bodies such as NABMSE, to identify further improvements needed to support their role.

It is important to note that while the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Conscious of this and recognising the need to target resources to those schools that need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to schools to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of this programme of work will involve consultation with all relevant stakeholders.