Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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435. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will publish all the data related to the new educational assessment process as part of the assessment of needs; the reason if this data has not been collected, as a description of the new process being a trial or pilot was given to several schools involved in the process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8766/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In finalising the AON process, there has been extensive consultation with the education partners and with individual schools. I am very grateful to all those who contributed to this process. In particular, to the 80 schools that assisted in trialling the process and in providing detailed feedback on the guidance documents and resources put in place to support the process. This process was completed in December 2022 and feedback from the schools involved and stakeholders has been incorporated into revised guidance documents and the AON Report of Education Needs form. These forms are published on the gov.ie website, as follows: gov.ie - Report of Education Needs for the purpose of Assessment of Need (Disability Act 2005) ().

With regards to the type of feedback received from the schools during the trialling process, the following was recorded:

- Where possible have part of the form pre-filled by NCSE (school and student information);

- Would welcome a digital form;

- Emphasise that schools tick the applicable boxes;

- Reduce the length of the form to make one category for Social/Emotional/Self-Regulation, this was two categories;

- Stress in the Guidelines that this is for the assessment of education needs only;

- Schools didn’t want their NEPS time used for this purpose; and

- Very achievable and easy to complete.

Furthermore, the feedback received from the schools showed a trend of recurring questions, to assist the schools my department developed a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document, which was published on the Departments website on 1 February, and can also be found at: gov.ie - Report of Education Needs for the purpose of Assessment of Need (Disability Act 2005) ().

The Department is committed to monitoring the impact of the AON process on schools and will formally review this at the end of the current school year. This review will ensure that any additional guidance, support or resource that is required will be put in place at the earliest possible opportunity. The education stakeholders will be invited to participate in this review process.

In the interim, my Department and NCSE will work with the education stakeholders to ensure that schools are supported as outlined above to complete the AON process.