Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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30. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to the recent announcement regarding a new special school for Cork for the 2025-26 school term, if a location has been identified for the school; to provide further information on the capacity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44629/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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My department works closely with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) on the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. In Budget 2025, funding was secured for up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools, and an additional 300 special school places for the 2025/26 school year. This will deliver 2,700 new places for children.

Almost 1,700 new special classes and eleven special schools have been provided in recent years. For this 2024/25 school year alone, over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned with classes provided in every county. Four new special schools have also opened last month in counties Meath, Kildare, Wexford and Limerick.

My department and the NCSE continue to work closely on the forward planning of special education provision. Just last month Minster Foley and I announced that another five new special schools will be established for the next school year 2025/26, two in County Dublin and one each in counties Cork, Monaghan and Tipperary. The exact location, size of the schools and other details are currently being worked through.

This will be the fourth new special school established in County Cork in recent years. It will bring to 129 the number of NCSE supported special schools in the county.

It is envisaged that existing buildings will be repurposed, in the first instance, to facilitate the opening of the new special schools for the 2025/26 school year. Further details such as the precise location of the new schools in each county will be confirmed in due course as part of the finalisation of arrangements for the opening of the new special schools.

The schools will provide for children and young people with complex special education needs from 4 years up to 18 years of age. They are being sanctioned as early as possible as part of advanced forward planning for the next school year to ensure that appropriate placements are available where needed to meet the needs of students with special educational needs.

The announcement of these schools is a significant step forward. Part of the forward planning process looks at how far students are travelling to access an education appropriate to their needs.

The early announcement of the new schools is an important milestone because it allows more time for the planning of school admissions, recruitment of staff, staff training and completion of necessary building works.

Dedicated working groups will be established by my department to work through the details in relation to the establishment of the new special schools. The NCSE at local level will continue to support and update families on the establishment of the new special school.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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31. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the school inclusion model; to outline any plans her Department has for delivery for the next academic year 2025--26; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44956/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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In June 2024 I announced the establishment of the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS), which will see the appointment, on a permanent basis, of 39 occupational and speech and language therapists, as well as 5 behaviour practitioners to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The expansion of therapy services within the NCSE is expected to build on the achievements and impact of the in-school therapy supports services in the School Inclusion Model (SIM) pilot. SIM provided speech and language and occupational therapists the opportunity to systematically build the capacity of school communities to meet student’s needs.

The overarching purpose of the Educational Therapy Support Service will be to improve learning outcomes for students, ensure teachers are better equipped to support all students and ensure that the right resource is available to meet the needs of individual children to support better educational outcomes.

Therapists will work with teachers and other school personnel to build their capacity to provide as effectively as possible for the needs of students, for example through language programmes co-designed by teachers and speech and language therapists. They will work in partnership with school communities, NCSE colleagues and, where appropriate, NEPS and HSE professionals, promoting the participation and inclusion of all students particularly those with special education needs across all levels of a multi-tiered system of support, providing educational support for students with the greatest level of need.

The Educational Therapy Support Service provides two strands of support: sustained in-school therapy for a period of 24 months, in line with the SIM model and regional therapy support. Regional therapy support includes teacher professional learning seminars with follow-up in-school implementation support and the design and development of therapy resources with education colleagues.

The ETSS has commenced the delivery of school-based support. There are currently 22 schools in the Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow region involved in the NCSE Sustained In-school Support for 2024-2026. Regional therapy support has been advertised to all schools in Dublin Kildare and Wicklow. The first seminars and in-school support for teachers began in October 2024.

Limerick has been identified as the most suitable hub for the Western region and it is anticipated that schools in Limerick and Tipperary will be invited to apply for sustained in-school support in early 2025, subject to the recruitment of appropriate personnel by the NCSE.

It is envisaged that teacher professional learning seminars for both Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy, with follow up in-school support, will be available nationally for 2025/2026.