Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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358. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the additional supports that may be required by children experiencing homelessness, children living in areas with high levels of crime, children in care or residential settings, new entrant pupils and other pupils who do not speak English as a first language were taken into consideration when revising this model. [6657/24]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question.

Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers.

Firstly I would like to address the English as an additional language portion of your question.

The Special Education Teacher allocation model is designed to provide additional teaching support to schools to support pupils with special education needs and while some pupils where English is not their first language may have special education needs and schools are expected to provide support based on the general principle of the child with the greatest level of need receives the greatest level of support.

My department has a process, separate to the SET model, to provide specific English Language support to schools with pupils newly arrived into the country that have English as an additional language.

Schools may apply for further language support through the staffing appeals process.

In addition, a scheme of allocation of temporary Special Education Teaching resources has been in place since August 2022 to provide additional SET supports to school who have enrolled large number of Ukrainian and IPAS students.

The SET Model incorporates as one of its three pillars educational disadvantage.

Socio-economic factors are key drivers of educational disadvantage and to support schools to help such students, a value is applied where students attend a school from a disadvantaged area.

It is important to understand that the allocation from this pillar is focused on the pupil data rather than a school’s designation.

What this means is that the allocation of hours within this pillar of the model is derived from a process of matching individual pupil eircodes to the HP Index for Small Areas. This ensures that any school that has enrolled a pupil(s) from a geographically disadvantaged area is provided with additional support.

I would be the first to acknowledge that every school is different, and that schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. This is always a challenge when we seek to make allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that we have also streamlined the review process for Special Education Teachers and schools who feel that they have received an inappropriate allocation can make this application to the NCSE.

Application forms for schools to apply for a SET Review will be available on the NCSE website from the week commencing the 19th February 2024.The NCSE will begin accepting applications for SET Reviews on the 1st March 2024 with a closing date for applications of SET Reviews on the 22nd March. Schools must submit their completed application forms through the online portal on the NCSE website. Among the criteria for schools to submit a review is a very significant and immediate changes to the local population that have occurred in a short space of time. For example, significant increase in availability of social housing or the opening of a homeless shelter resulting in a large number of children with special educational needs enrolling in a school.

In addition the NCSE SENO is available to discuss matters with any relevant school.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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360. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the criteria for prioritising literacy and numeracy profiles of schools estimated from the results of standardised testing. [6659/24]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question.

Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers.

In 2023, my department spent over €2.6 billion on special education and further progress will be made this year as an additional €113m will be dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs.

The SET allocation model is designed to distribute additional teaching resources across the entire school system. This is to ensure that additional teaching resources are available to support pupils with the greatest level of learning need. There is a defined level of resources available to distribute across the whole school system.

A unique educational profile is created for each school and is underpinned by three pillars;

1. Enrolment Allocation (sourced from POD/PPOD)

2. Educational Teaching Needs Profile (derived from the literacy and numeracy profile of the school as demonstrated by the STen scores for English/Irish and Maths and Junior Cycle data

3. Educational Disadvantage (pupil data from POD/PPOD combined with data from the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas, which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area)

The Educational Teaching needs profile is calculated based on educational outcome data which are collected and held within schools and submitted to the Department of Education. Hence, the profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

These are a consistent and reliable indicator to identify additional learning need, particularly those with the highest level of need. This data is being taken over a 3 year period so that the model can be sensitive to any short term fluctuations and means those schools that need it most will get the sustained support required.

In the review of the model consideration was given to those students with multiple needs and who may not have undertaken standardised testing and this has been incorporated in the model.

As the SET allocation model has been in place since 2017 based on a 2014 NCSE report, my Department believed a review of the model was prudent. The department commenced a review in late 2022 to ensure that the model was meeting the changing needs in special education.

The review of the SET allocation model identified that a programme of continuous development was required to ensure that the model was delivering effectively, both in supporting the changing needs in the education system, and for individual schools.

The journey of enhancement begins with the 2024/25 allocation by ensuring that the model has a strong foundation.

A phased high level plan has been compiled to further enhance the model over the coming years. The department intends to undertake further detailed consultations with our education partners in the development of future enhancements to the model.