Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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412. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she plans to create separate qualification criteria for home tutors with the Teaching Council; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3955/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the Deputy's question is specific to the Special Education Home Tuition Grant Scheme.

The Special Education Home Tuition Grant Scheme is available to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school.

The aim of the Department is to meet the needs of families and to ensure every child is allocated a suitable school placement. The preferred approach is that children are educated in school settings where children may have access to fully qualified teachers, individualised education programmes, special needs assistants, school curriculum with the option, where possible and appropriate, of full or partial integration and interaction with student peers.

Accordingly, home tuition is provided as an interim measure only for children for whom a placement in a recognised school is not currently available and should not be regarded as an optional alternative to a school placement.

The Special Education Needs Home Tuition Scheme provides funding towards a compensatory educational service for children with special educational needs for whom such a placement is not available. The scheme also provides for early educational intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who meet the scheme’s criteria, aged from 2.5 - 5 years before they start in school.

The applicable criteria under which children qualify for Home Tuition support are set out in Circular 0046/2022.

Home tutors are engaged by the parents/guardian of the child who is to receive tuition and the tutor has no contractual relationship with the Department of Education. As tuition takes place outside the usual school structure it is important that home tutors are qualified to provide an educational programme relevant to the sector the child is in.

Accordingly, it is a condition of the scheme that parents/legal guardians recruit a tutor who is qualified in the sector in which tuition is being provided, and is registered with the Teaching Council for the duration of the approved tuition. It is imperative parents/legal guardians satisfy themselves that the selected tutors have completed the vetting process via the Teaching Council’s online vetting process. All registered teachers can apply to be vetted through the Teaching Council of Ireland’s website. The process is free of charge and can take approximately 4 weeks. Parents/legal guardians can confirm that tutors are vetted, and view the outcome and date of that vetting by viewing the result of the tutors vetting search, known as a Vetting Disclosure through the Teaching Council's website.

Where all efforts have failed to secure the services of a teacher qualified to teach in the sector concerned, the Department may consider the engagement of a person who is registered with the Teaching Council and has a primary degree (minimum Level 7 on the National Framework of Qualifications) in a relevant area, e.g. Psychology.

The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the Teaching Council (Registration) Regulations 2016 (SI444 of 2016, as amended). As set out in the Schedule of the Regulations, the Council registers teachers under four routes of registration: Primary, Post-primary, Further Education and Other. The Department is satisfied with that the current qualifications requirements for tutors as it supports the approach of this scheme and there are no plans to review same.