Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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505. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will publish sTen outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing students. [46507/24]

Photo of Hildegarde NaughtonHildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Department does not gather literacy or numeracy data relating to specific groups of children or young people. Schools provide information to the Department on outcomes in standardised literacy and numeracy tests. However, this data is provided in aggregated form only.

The Department of Education has established a working group comprising NCSE, NEPS, Inspectorate, Central Policy Unit and the Special Education Unit of the Department. This group is considering the topic of educational outcomes across a range of areas including student engagement, attainment, attendance, happiness, independence and progress.

The intended outputs of the group include the development of a framework for schools that will enable them to monitor and record outcomes in these areas.

Recognising the critical importance of evidence informed policy making, it is also intended that the framework will be sufficiently flexible such that school level information and data will be available to the Department as a means of informing policy for students with special or additional needs.

In tandem with this, the NCSE Research and Evaluation team together with Visiting Teachers of children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) students or Blind/Vision Impaired (BVI) have commenced a study of outcomes for students who have availed of the service.

The NCSE’s Research and Evaluation team intends reporting on school leavers who are DHH or BVI who have left school in 22/23 or 23/24, to establish their post-school pathway.

The NCSE’s Sensory Inclusion Team and Research and Evaluation team have now gathered information from school leavers and are analysing data collected. It is anticipated that initial findings from this analysis will be made available to the Department before the year end, with a view to publishing the study of outcomes in Quarter 1, 2025.

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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506. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will allow deaf students to undertake the Leaving Certificate examination in Irish Sign Language. [46508/24]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that the Deputy's question relates to the Reasonable Accommodations at Certified Examinations Scheme, known as the RACE Scheme. The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has responsibility for operational matters relating to the state examinations, including RACE, and in view of this I have forwarded the question to the SEC for direct reply to the Deputy.

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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507. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of transporting pupils with special needs to schools in taxis in Longford in 2023 and 2024. [46509/24]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes over 143,800 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 21,700 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.

The scheme is made up of three separate schemes, the school transport scheme for primary, post primary and for children with special educational needs. Transport is also provided for children who have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine and those residing in IPAS/EROC centres.

The total expenditure on the scheme in 2024 was €512m.

The scheme is operated using a mix of Bus Éireann owned vehicles and private contractor owned vehicles. In addition, a number of vehicle types are used, comprising of buses (large, medium and mini) and taxis. As part of the operation of the scheme, Bus Éireann manages the procurement tender process and contract management arrangements to include services provided by contractors under the School Transport Scheme.

The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available. However, officials from the School Transport Section of my Department will forward the information directly to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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508. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of transporting pupils with special needs to schools in taxis in Westmeath in 2023 and 2024. [46510/24]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes over 143,800 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 21,700 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.

The scheme is made up of three separate schemes, the school transport scheme for primary, post primary and for children with special educational needs. Transport is also provided for children who have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine and those residing in IPAS/EROC centres.

The total expenditure on the scheme in 2024 was €512m.

The scheme is operated using a mix of Bus Éireann owned vehicles and private contractor owned vehicles. In addition, a number of vehicle types are used, comprising of buses (large, medium and mini) and taxis. As part of the operation of the scheme, Bus Éireann manages the procurement tender process and contract management arrangements to include services provided by contractors under the School Transport Scheme.

The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available. However, officials from the School Transport Section of my Department will forward the information directly to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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509. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a list of schools in Longford and Westmeath that are on the waiting list for an ASD unit; and the length of these waiting lists. [46511/24]

Photo of Hildegarde NaughtonHildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As you are aware enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for government. Thanks to considerable investment in special education in recent years 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.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs. Almost 1,700 classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE in the last 5 years, 11 new special schools have been established and many more expanded. For this school year alone over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned bringing the total number of special classes nationwide to 3,336.

10 of these new special classes opened in County Westmeath and 6 in County Longford. This brings to 69 the total number of special classes in Westmeath and 47 the total number of special classes in Longford for the 2024/25 school year. Budget 2025 provides funding for another 400 special classes and 300 special school places nationwide.

Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally for planning purposes. Local special educational needs organisers (SENOs) are available to assist and advise parents and can provide details on schools with available special educational places. Parents may contact SENOs directly using the contact details available on the NCSE website.

The NCSE have recently recruited additional SENOs, advisors and team managers. 120 SENOs now operate nationwide, two of these are operating solely in County Westmeath and 1 in Longford.

SENOs play an important role in ensuring there is adequate special educational provision within local areas and are currently visiting schools nationwide to conduct planning meetings. Over 1,000 school planning visits have occurred in recent months. These planning visits have been key to the NCSE in determining what new provision can be provided and it is expected that the NCSE will sanction a number of new special classes in the coming weeks.

The NCSE continue to assess what additional provision is required in local areas and what schools have capacity to accommodate required provision. The NCSE will progress the sanctioning of new special classes over the coming weeks and will advise parents in turn on the location of new special classes for the 2025/26 school year.

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