Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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127. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if assistance will be provided in relation to the appointment of a home school tutor for a child (details supplied). [11648/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The 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. 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.

Student Teachers registered under route 5 with the Teaching Council can only engage in teaching on a substitute basis until the successful completion of the accredited programme in teacher education in respect of which you were registered with the Teaching Council.

As set out in Circular 0046/2022 it is the responsibility of the parent/legal guardian to source a tutor at the earliest possible opportunity to allow for applications for registration/vetting to be made by the tutor to the Teaching Council, if necessary. This Department does not keep lists of tutors available to carry out home tuition, however to help parents source a home tutor for this scheme in their local area, the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) has created a Home Tuition Noticeboard for Parents to help them source a suitable candidates. This noticeboard is available on www.educationposts.ie It may also be helpful to contact local schools in the first instance, or alternatively, the Department is aware that many parents use education provider websites to advertise for tutors or indeed place advertisements in local newspapers or on shop/community notice boards.