Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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319. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures being taken to ensure a child (details supplied) receives a place in a primary school ASD unit for 2024/2025.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16386/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority 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. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

For 2024, €2.7 billion is being spent on special education, an increase of €113 million, and this is dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs. This will allow for, amongst other things, the opening of up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools and 300 additional special school places.

In 2024, the number of teaching and SNA posts in our schools will increase with an additional 744 teachers and 1,216 SNAs added to deliver up to 2,700 new places for children with special educational needs. This will mean we will have over 41,500 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting these children.

The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs.

Over the last number of years, my department and the NCSE have introduced a number of strategic initiatives to plan for and provide sufficient special class and special school places.

These initiatives are bearing fruit with almost 1,300 new special classes sanctioned and seven new special schools established over the last four years.

My department engage 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.

As a result of this forward planning, two new special schools have been established for this current school year in Cork and Dublin, with further capacity being expanded in 11 other special schools.

In addition, four new special schools will be established for the 2024/25 school year in counties Meath, Kildare, Wexford and Limerick. This will bring to 11 the number of new special schools established in recent years.

Along with the two new special schools opening this school year, 391 new special classes – 255 at primary and 136 at post-primary level – have been sanctioned by the NCSE.

Of these 76 are in Cork, 52 at primary level and 24 at post-primary level. This brings to 496 the number of special classes in County Cork, 351 at primary level and 145 at post-primary level. The vast majority of these class are autism classes and have a teacher/student ratio of 1:6.

Information on the list of schools with special classes, the types and locations of these classes is published on the NCSE website and is available at: www.ncse.ie/special-classes.

Planning for special classes and special school places is currently underway ahead of the 2024/25 school year. The locations of new classes for 2024/25 will be confirmed by the NCSE shortly.

In relation to the student referred to by the Deputy, the NCSE has advised my department that the local special educational needs organiser (SENO) is working closely with the family regarding special education placements options.

Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally so that their needs can be taken into account for planning purposes. Local SENOs are available to assist and advise the parents of children with special educational needs. Parents may contact SENOs directly using the contact details available on the NCSE's website at: www.ncse.ie/regional-services-contact-list.

My department will continue to support the NCSE and schools through the provision of the necessary funding and capital investment to ensure all children are successful in accessing an education.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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320. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of ASD places available in secondary schools in Ballincollig, Cork, for September 2024, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16387/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority 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. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

In 2024, €2.7 billion is being spent on special education, an increase of €113 million, and this is dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs. This will allow for, amongst other things, the opening of up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools and 300 additional special school places.

The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs.

Over the last number of years, my department and the NCSE have introduced a number of strategic initiatives to plan for and provide sufficient special class and special school places.

These initiatives are bearing fruit with almost 1,300 new special classes sanctioned and seven new special schools established over the last four years.

My department engage 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.

As a result of this forward planning, two new special schools have been established for this current school year in Cork and Dublin, with further capacity being expanded in 11 other special schools.

In addition, four new special schools will be established for the 2024/25 school year in counties Meath, Kildare, Wexford and Limerick. This will bring to 11 the number of new special schools established in recent years.

Along with the two new special schools opening this school year, 391 new special classes – 255 at primary and 136 at post-primary level – have been sanctioned by the NCSE.

Of these 76 are in County Cork, 52 at primary level and 24 at post-primary level. This brings to 496 the number of special classes in Cork, 351 at primary level and 145 at post-primary level. In the Ballincollig area there are currently five autism classes in post-primary schools, each class has a teacher/student ratio of 1:6.

Planning for special classes and special school places is currently underway ahead of the 2024/25 school year. The locations of new classes for 2024/25 will be confirmed by the NCSE shortly.

As demand for new special classes at post-primary level is expected to increase significantly over the next few years, due to increasing demographics and increasing prevalence rates, my department and the NCSE have engaged with post-primary stakeholders in relation to the provision of special classes.

My department wrote to all post-primary schools requesting that each school begin planning to provide for up to four special classes to meet the needs of children progressing from primary school. The department and the NCSE continue to have engagement with post-primary school management bodies in relation to the provision of special classes.

Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally so that their needs can be taken into account for planning purposes. The local special educational needs organisers (SENOs) remain available to assist and advise parents of children with special educational needs. Parents may contact SENOs directly using the contact details available at: www.ncse.ie/regional-services-contact-list.

Information on the list of schools with special classes, the types and locations of these classes is published on the NCSE website and is available at: www.ncse.ie/special-classes.

My department will continue to support the NCSE and schools through the provision of the necessary funding and capital investment to ensure all children are successful in accessing an education.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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321. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason that in the most recent meetings in relation to special education, the removal of complex needs was included. [16431/24]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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322. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to list the exemptions for which schools can apply to the National Council for Special Education. [16432/24]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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324. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason Down’s syndrome specifically is not recognised as complex needs under the definition of complex needs. [16434/24]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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325. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to quantify the numbers which determine the significant intake of additional needs. [16435/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 321, 322, 324 and 325 together.

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, the 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.

As the SET allocation model has been in place since 2017 based on a 2014 NCSE report, the 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

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 complex needs input, which was introduced in the 2017 model, was predicated on the provision of data from the HSE Children Disability Network Teams on children entering junior infants with special education needs who were assessed or triaged for a waiting list for assessment.

The review highlighted concerns in relation to the veracity and the consistency of the data provided on a national basis by the CDNT. This resulted in the potential for significant variations from one area of the country to another. In addition, it is not possible to verify whether all data reported relates solely to educational need as distinct from care needs, which are resourced through the Special Needs Assistant allocation process, or medical needs.

To ensure that schools are not negatively impacted by these issues, all existing hours assigned for complex needs are being maintained for each school and future data from the CDNT will not be used as a value in the model. This is being done by reapportioning this value at individual school level across the remaining pillars with an emphasis on the Literacy and Numeracy category which demonstrates where additional teaching supports are required. This exercise strengthens the model to give a sustainable allocation to schools, which recognises where there are significant learning needs.

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, including children with Down Syndrome 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.

In addition, over the last number of years we have seen significant growth in special classes from 548 in 2011 to 2,921 in 2024, with 390 opened in the past year alone. We have also opened new special schools with 130 special schools nationwide with an enrolment of over 8,700 students. A significant number of pupils who were previously supported in mainstream are now supported in these settings.

These elements of the continuum of education provision are resourced separately to the SET model.

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.

For 2024/25 there will be 14,600 SETs – double the figure from 2014 and an increase of 1,000 from the 2020/21 school year.

The department is committed to ongoing engagement with our education partners in relation to future developments and enhancements to the SET model.

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.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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323. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school will be able to enrol a child with special educational needs if there are no SET hours. [16433/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question.

I would like to initially clarify that there is no school in the education system without an allocation of SET hours to support children with special education needs.

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. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

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

This includes funding to support children with special educational needs in mainstream classes; funding for new special classes and new special school places; additional special educational teachers, special needs assistants (SNAs) and funding for the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).

In 2024, the number of teaching and SNA posts in our schools will increase with an additional 744 teachers and 1,216 SNAs added to deliver up to 2,700 new places for children with special educational needs.

This will mean there will be over 41,500 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.

The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews.

The SET allocation model for 2024/25 distributes the total available number of Special education Teacher posts in line with each school’s profile of need. The model makes an allocation on the basis of a number of inputs, including enrolment numbers. It also uses school-level data from standardised tests in order to reflect relative levels of overall needed.

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.

The guidance to schools on the proper deployment and usage remains unchanged and that schools must deploy their SET resources in line with the Continuum of Support. The guiding principle of the continuum is that SET resources usage and deployment continues to be that the student with the greatest level of need should receive the greatest level of support.

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 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.

The Department is cognisant that it is possible that unique circumstances may present in a school which could require an urgent review. In such circumstances, the school may apply for this process through the NCSE. Reviews will be conducted by the NCSE, between March and May each year, to better enable schools to plan for the following September.

Appendix 1 of Circular 002/2024 & 003/2024 clarifies what constitutes unique circumstances and provides further information on the SET Review process.

It is also 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.

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