Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following:

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of special needs assistants (SNAs) and reviews. The school should liaise with the NCSE directly in the event that additional supports are required. My Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations.

The 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. 

It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised. 

In relation to the school in question the NCSE have confirmed that an SNA Exceptional Review was carried out for this school, from 15th to 19th of September 2022.

The NCSE state that the outcome of the review was that the mainstream SNA allocation to the school was increased from 1.75 to 2.33 SNA posts.

Detailed information on the NCSE Exceptional Review process is published on the NCSE website. ncse.ie/application-for-sna-exceptional-review.

The Exceptional Review process for mainstream allocations is available to schools throughout the 2022/23 school year.