Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, 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 Education, 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. It is important to note that SET hours are only one component of support for children in mainstream but the most important support is the mainstream class teacher. The pupil teacher ratio at primary level is now 23:1 which means there are more mainstream teachers than ever before in our educational system. There will be 14,600 Special Education Teachers (SETs) supporting mainstream classes in the 2024/25 school year, which is an increase of 1,000 since the end of the 2021 school year. This is the highest number of SET teachers ever in our schools.

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 examined the following:

• The individual inputs (components) of the model
• The validity and reliability of the data used for each component
• Feedback from our education partners and individual schools

The review of the SET allocation model further 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.

A high level roadmap has been discussed and agreed with our education partners during a series of consultations to enhance the inputs and improve the sensitivity of the model.

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

The key to building a solid foundation is ensuring that the data, for each pillar within the model, is already available to the department and provided by schools. Where data used in the model is received from external sources, it is critical that the information is being received on a consistent basis.

The SET model is an allocation model to provide schools with additional teaching hours to support the teaching needs of their students.

When the 2017 model was introduced it replaced a diagnosis led model with one based on need. This has not changed for 2024 and the allocation to schools is to support all of the children in school who require some level of additional teaching support.

The SET allocation model only deals with the allocation of hours to schools and there is no change to the guidelines for schools on the usage and deployment of SET hours.

Schools must allocate the hours allocated to them based on the ‘continuum of support’ process to meet the identified needs of pupils.

The model allocates resources nationally based on three components of which a 25% weighting is applied to enrolment numbers, 6.5% applied to educational disadvantage and 68.5% applied to the Educational Teaching needs profile

The Educational Teaching Needs profile is compiled as follows.

At primary, the Educational Teaching needs profile is calculated based on educational outcome (STen) data which are collected and held within schools and submitted to the Department of Education. At post primary, the data used is Junior Cycle results. Hence, the profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of teaching need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

In addition, to ensure children with the greatest level of need are addressed by the model all pupils who are marked as exempt (approx. 1% of the population) are included as STen 1 to ensure that the school receives an allocation to support them. STen 1 & 2 scores (including exempted) would align in general to pupils in our education system who are in need of the greatest level of teaching support.

The review of the SET model focused on ensuring that we had the best possible data available to inform the distribution of resources to our schools.

Our policy relating to supporting all of our children in our schools based on their level of need remains.

The policy that individual schools are required to adhere to is the principle that the allocation is utilised to ensure that those pupils with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support and this remains unchanged.

Therefore the revised profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

I would like to assure you that there have been no cuts to mainstream Special Education Teaching posts in the education system. There are now more Special Education Teaching posts than ever before in schools.

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 Department acknowledges 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 making allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that the Department, working with the NCSE has streamlined the review process for special education teachers and schools who have any concerns can engage with the NCSE on their allocation

It is important to note that SET hours are only one component of support for children in mainstream but the most important support is the mainstream class teacher. The pupil teacher ratio at primary level is now 23:1 which means there are more mainstream teachers than ever before in our educational system. There will be 14,600 Special Education Teachers (SETs) supporting mainstream classes in the 2024/25 school year, which is an increase of 1,000 since the end of the 2021 school year. This is the highest number of SET teachers ever in our schools.