Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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823.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated annual cost of providing special education teachers, special needs assistants and other additional needs supports to schools on a “trust” basis, that is, in response to requests for resources from school principals based on their assessment of school needs. [32970/24]

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. 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.

My Department along with the NCSE has developed a revised and very much streamlined process to support schools and ensuring that the Special Education Teaching resources required are provided to schools in a timely manner.

For the 2024/25 school year any school who believed that the allocated resources for the school year was not sufficient to support the learning needs of their pupils could apply for a review of their allocation in March.

To ensure schools had the necessary resources available for the start of the new school year all reviews were completed before the end of June 2024 and all schools which demonstrated additional need to the NCSE were allocated additional resources based on the quantum required as identified by the NCSE. All schools were advised of their amended allocation in June well ahead of the commencement of the 2024/25 school year.

All mainstream schools have been advised of their initial SNA allocations for the 2024/25 school years. The NCSE is responsible for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including allocation of SNAs and reviews of same.

A school that has concerns should contact their local NCSE SENO to discuss their concerns. My department does not have a role in making individual school determinations.

The NCSE manages the SNA exceptional review process and handles each case individually.

My department has been working with the NCSE to streamline the review process for SNAs and the NCSE will be issuing revised guidelines on SNA review to schools for the 2024/25 school year.

This seeks to reduce the administrative burden on schools, ensure timely reviews and develop strong relationships between schools and SENOs. All of this is with the objective of delivering the best support to children with significant care needs in our schools.

I am confident that the changes to the SET review process ensures that all schools who have identified additional need to the NCSE have the required SET resources that are required to support their pupils ahead of the commencement of the new school year

If circumstances change during the school year the school should immediately make contact with their local SENO.

In relation to costs of additional resources the average salary costs are outlined in the following table.