David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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196. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will commit to establishing an autism class at a school (details supplied) in time for the school year 2024-2025. [38727/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of 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 or at other schools in the area.

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 capacity at other schools in the area is also considered as part of the assessment of any accommodation needs

The school initially applied for 1 x mainstream classroom in 2023.

Following an initial assessment, a potential need for additional accommodation was identified and communicated to the school. This was not a formal approval letter. As part of its overall programme planning for 2024 school accommodation needs the Department is now examining enrolment data from the current school year and data on accommodation capacity at schools in order to reassess and identify critical accommodation requirements for the next school year, with a view to advancing these to formal approval stage. You will appreciate that it is very important that capacity in existing schools and across a town or area is maximised to the greatest extent possible and this includes ensuring that all school accommodation is being utilised as efficiently as possible, and that priority is given to the use of accommodation for classroom purposes, either to meet mainstream or special educational needs. This analysis is forming part of the Department’s current assessment process.

The school authority has recently submitted another additional application to provide 1 x Special educational need classroom for September 2025 through modular accommodation.

The Department’s Modular Accommodation Programme is an important mechanism for facilitating accelerated delivery of necessary additional capacity – including in relation to special classes. However, as part of maximising existing capacity and managing within budgetary parameters this is targeted at schools where there is no existing capacity in the general area to facilitate the establishment of urgently required special classes.

A key focus of the Department is the utilisation of existing accommodation at schools to provide facilities for special classes. This approach supports accelerated delivery of the accommodation and provision which is well integrated within the mainstream school accommodation. It is consistent with the Department’s commitment to supporting the educational needs of children who require specialist placements while at the same time meeting the requirements of the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines.

Schools’ support for the establishment of special classes is very welcome. However, an analysis of both the need for special class places and existing capacity in schools in the general area will first need to be completed before a decision can be made on a school’s application for additional accommodation. In this regard, the Department is working very closely with the NCSE to ensure that the most appropriate solution is identified with a view to providing the most immediate and cost effective accommodation solutions for the establishment of new special classes.

Both applications are being considered in this context and we are working to get a decision communicated to the school as soon as possible.