Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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218. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills regarding the current funding crisis threatening a preschool for autistic children (details supplied), if she will ensure that her Department responsible for processing the payments processes them promptly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8953/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 197 and 218 together.

The purpose of the Home Tuition Grant Scheme is 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 terms of this scheme are set out in circular 24/2023 which is available at: www.gov.ie/en/circular/67f37-home-tuition-grant-scheme-20232024-special-education-component/

Payments to group providers of home tuition, such as the facility concerned, are made directly to the provider on a monthly basis in arrears in accordance with my Department’s policy in this regard. Claim forms are to be submitted to my Department at the end of the month in which tuition has been provided and every effort is made to process these claims as soon as possible after the claim form is received from the facility. However, delays may be experienced from time to time if forms are incomplete or not submitted promptly by the provider. I can assure the deputies that every effort is being made to keep any delays to a minimum. The claim submitted by the facility in question in respect of home tuition for December 2023 has been fully processed and paid. The claim for January 2024 was received on February 8th 2024. This will be processed within the standard timeframe for the processing of correctly completed claim forms which is four to five weeks from the date of receipt.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the urgent steps her Department will take in relation to a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8736/24]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Purpose of the Home Tuition Grant Scheme is to provide a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of reasons, are unable to attend school. The scheme also provides a compensatory educational service for children with special educational needs seeking an educational placement for whom such a placement is not available. Likewise, provision is made for early educational intervention for children aged from 2.5 years to 3 years with autism.

Home Tuition is provided as an interim measure only for children for whom a placement in a recognised school is sought but is not available and should not be regarded as an optional alternative to a school placement. Ensuring that every child with special educational needs gets a suitable education is a priority for the Department of Education.

Where parents of children, for whom home tuition has been approved, have sought alternative measures to be put in place for the tuition, my Department has an arrangement with certain private pre-school providers to provide group tuition to children in a class type setting. Each pre-school provider is selected by the parents. Blossoms Pre-school in Enfield is one such pre-school provider.

In recognition of the demand for group arrangements for Home Tuition, my Department now advises all parents of eligible children of the option to enter into a group arrangement with other parents of children for whom home tuition has been sanctioned. My Department has no contract with these pre-school providers. The contract is essentially between the parents and the relevant provider. My Department does not provide capital funding to private pre-school providers nor does my Department have any role in providing staff to these facilities.

Nonetheless, my Department does state in the terms and conditions issued to pre-school providers the following:

“The facility will operate at least 1 class on the basis of 6 children per class with 1 qualified teacher and 3 assistants who must be registered and vetted with the Teaching Council of Ireland. A pro-rata reduction will be applied both in terms of the number of tutors/assistants and the payments where the class is not operating at full capacity. In this regard, every effort should be made to have classes operating with the full complement of both students and registered tutors/assistants. The minimum number of children required to operate a class is 3.”

Consent of the parent/guardian of the eligible child must be provided to allow the child attend the facility and to allow the facility to receive the payments which would normally be paid to the parent under the Scheme. These arrangements allow parents to forego the home based provision in favour of the provision in a classroom setting which is supported by a direct payment facility.

Parents wishing to enter into such an arrangement must notify my Department in advance for approval. Funding is provided to these pre-school providers on the basis that they abide by the rules established by the Special Education Section of the Department of Education, as set out in Circular 0024/2023 which can be found at www.gov.ie/en/circular/67f37-home-tuition-grant-scheme-20232024-special-education-component/.

As tuition of the nature which the Deputy refers to takes place outside the usual school structure it is important that the educational programme provided generally reflects that which would be provided in a school environment.

It is appropriate therefore that the qualification standard for Home Tuition generally reflects that required in a school environment. Accordingly, it is a condition of the scheme that parents/guardians must recruit a tutor who is qualified in the relevant sector, and is actively registered with the Teaching Council, similar to the requirement for teachers in schools.

In addition, tutors engaged must be vetted by the National Vetting Bureau via the Teaching Council of Ireland’s online vetting process, prior to the commencement of the delivery of tuition.

The same conditions apply whether Parents use the grant to engage tutors to deliver tuition in their home or private providers to deliver tuition in a group setting.

In the case referred to by the Deputy, I have asked my Officials to engage with the school directly to find a solution to the matter raised.