Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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315. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, and to what extent, a school, its patron and/or the Minister is responsible for ensuring compliance with the current primary and secondary legislation, circular letters, guidelines and other such measures. [26270/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Education Act, 1998 sets out the legal framework for schools, their patrons and the Minister for Education. The act provides that the Board of Management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school on behalf of the Patron. The act also sets out a requirement on schools to ensure that education provided by a school meets education policy as determined by the Minister.

The Department’s Inspectorate has a quality assurance and improvement remit in relation to the oversight of curriculum, assessment, teaching, learning, leadership and governance in schools. The Inspectorate promotes improvement and publishes inspection reports on the quality and standards in individual schools, and across the education system, in line with the provisions of the Education Act

The FSSU supports boards of management in complying with the provisions of the Education Act in terms of transparency, accountability, and financial responsibility for state and other funding. The FSSU also supports boards of management in meeting their compliance requirements to other regulatory and statutory bodies.

The NCSE is the statutory body responsible for the co-ordination of special education needs provision in our schools. The NCSE allocate teaching and SNA supports to schools to support the needs of children and young people with special educational needs. These allocations are made in line with Department guidelines and circular letters. The NCSE also operate a review process for allocations.

In accordance with Department of Education guidelines, the NCSE also sanction the establishment of new special classes and review the enrolment of students to those classes to ensure that students meet the entry requirements for those classes.

While schools are required to adhere to broad legislative requirements including child protection, health and safety and charities legislation, there are separate compliance requirements that are overseen by various agencies, including Tusla, the Health and Safety Authority and the Charities Regulator. In such instances agencies work closely with the Department and education partners to ensure that all legislative requirements are in place in schools.