Written answers
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Department of Education and Skills
Special Educational Needs
Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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120. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide some clarity on the removal of funding for an ASD unit in a Leitrim school (details supplied) after physical accommodation was unable to be sourced. [16371/24]
Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my department has received an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question.
The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (or ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation.
At primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for a school’s accommodation requirements where an additional teaching post has been sanctioned by Teacher Allocation Section, or the requirement for a new class for pupils with special education needs has been identified by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.
The Department engages intensely with the NCSE in relation to the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. This forward planning work is well underway ahead of the 2024/25 school year. This work involves a detailed review of statistical data in relation to forecasting demand for special class places, an analysis of available school accommodation, consideration of improved data sharing arrangements and a particular focus on the provision of special classes at post-primary level. In planning and providing for additional school accommodation, the Department must also have regard to construction inflation pressures and competing demands on suppliers of modular accommodation and project management services.
In general, demographics have been falling at primary level and are due to continue to decrease. Therefore, the Department considers it prudent to maximise the use of existing spare accommodation capacity at primary level in the first instance, before considering any applications for further accommodation needs. This is in line with public spending requirements. In relation to the provision of primary special classes, the shared preference of both the Department and the NCSE is to use and reconfigure existing school accommodation to provide special classes. Given the number of primary special classes available already and the falling demographics, it is also likely that most of the new additional special classes may be required in larger population centres in a local school planning area.
I can confirm that my officials have been engaging with the school authorities in relation to progressing their application as a traditional build project. I am pleased to confirm that a brief letter of offer has issued to the school authorities which includes funding for one special education classroom. This is currently with their Board of Management for consideration.
Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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121. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to explain the adaptation of standardised testing to dictate the assignment of SET hours, which prevents early intervention as testing does not begin until second class. [16495/24]
Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the deputy for the question raised.
Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers.
The Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation model for 2024/25 is based on information from all 4,000 schools in the country. The model distributes the total available number of SET posts in line with each school’s profile of need.
The model seeks to distribute teaching resources in the fairest possible manner, taking into account as much evidence as possible in respect of individual schools and evidence in respect of the best possible use of resources. The inputs to the model do not prescribe which children should receive support through the additional teaching resources, schools must adhere to the guidance on the use of SET hours and support all children with additional teaching needs using the continuum of support framework. This was the position in 2017 and remains the position now.
I would like to clarify the SET allocation model, since its introduction in 2017, has utilised standardised testing as an input to the model and this has not changed for the 2024/25 allocations.
The mainstream class teacher has primary responsibility for the progress and care of all children in their classrooms, including children with additional needs. The provision of SET allocations to schools is to provide additional learning supports to the cohort of student who schools identify as requiring additional support based on the continuum of support assets.gov.ie/40642/674c98d5e72d48b7975f60895b4e8c9a.pdf.
The use of standardised testing aligns with the purpose of the allocation of SET resources to schools as firstly students who are performing at the lower levels in standardised tests indicates the greatest level of need for additional teaching support.
Secondly the more complex learning support needs are captured by utilising data on students who are exempted, the pupils with more complex needs and who have been exempted are given the highest weight. Once again, it is very important to clarify that the inputs to the model do not prescribe which children should receive support through the additional teaching resources, schools must adhere to the guidance on the use of SET hours and support all children with additional teaching needs. This was the position in 2017 and remains the position now.
In previous iterations of SET model each time a school was reprofiled SET hours relating to school leavers (i.e. 6th class moving to post primary) was removed. In the 2024/25 version this has not been applied and these hours are immediately available to support incoming Junior Infants. If the profile of children coming into junior infants is more complex than those who left in 6th class, the NCSE review process is designed to cater for this issue and a school should discuss the matter with their local SENO.
It is important also to understand that it is not a single year’s test outcomes that are used to create a school profile but details from the previous three years tests over three classes 2nd, 4th and 6th.
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 teaching hours and schools who have any concerns can engage with the NCSE on their allocation. Details are available on www.ncse.ie.
Section 15 of circular 02/2024 outlines
The department, along with stakeholders, are cognisant that the model needs to continue to evolve so that the SET allocations process takes into account new or improved data sources and other changes within the school system.
The department is very much aware that additional data is available in individual schools which may not be available consistently across all schools and a key focus of the roadmap is to develop an accurate and verifiable system to capture such data.
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. The initial focus of this enhancement programme included the following: Examination of additional potential data sets already available in schools or other areas within the early years settings that could support greater sensitivity in the model.
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