Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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159. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the criteria that has been used to determine the position the SNA allocation in respect of a school (details supplied) for the coming school term; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20833/23]

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:

Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government.

For 2023, the spend by my department on special education will be substantially increased by over 10% on last year, meaning that for 2023 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’s total allocation for 2023.

My department has allocated 1,165 additional special needs assistants (SNAs) to schools in the past year and in Budget 2023 an additional 686 teachers and 1,194 SNAs are being provided to support schools.

The additional SNAs will be allocated as follows: 735 to support students in new special classes, 124 to support students in new special school places and 335 to support students in mainstream classes.

For the first time ever we will have over 19,000 teachers working in the area of special education and over 20,000 SNAs. 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.

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 SNAs.

SNAs are provided specifically to assist schools to assist children with special educational needs, who also have additional and significant care needs, and require additional assistance in order to be able to attend school and participate in education. Such support is provided with a view to develop independent living skills.

SNAs are allocated to schools as a school based resource not to individual children. 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.

My department does not have a role in making individual school determinations and the school should liaise with the NCSE directly in the event that additional supports are required.

Schools can seek a review of their SNA allocations through an exceptional review process, detailed information on the NCSE’s exceptional review process is published on the NCSE website ncse.ie/application-for-sna-exceptional-review.

The NCSE endeavour to respond to all applications for exceptional review received as expediently as possible and in that regard, it will prioritise applications from schools with no current SNA allocation and developing schools.

The NCSE has developed an appeal mechanism for schools who are not satisfied with the outcome of the exceptional review. Local special educational needs organisers (SENOs) will provide information and clarification to schools on the outcome where requested.

As the question relates to the allocation of supports to a specific school, I will arrange to have your question forwarded to the NCSE for direct reply to you.

SNA allocations for the 2023/24 school year will start being communicated to schools by the NCSE this week. The exceptional review process for mainstream allocations will remain in place throughout the 2023/24 school year.