Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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430. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will commit to collecting data on the educational outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing students. [2512/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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 outcomes 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 shortly, with a view to publishing the study of outcomes in Quarter 1, 2025.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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431. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware that due to changes in SET hours deaf, and hard of hearing students are now receiving less support than before; and if she will consider reviewing these guidelines [2513/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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. The number of special education teachers in mainstream schools is at the highest level ever with almost 15,000 teachers allocated across our primary and post primary schools.

Every primary and post primary school receives an allocation of Special Education Teaching (SET) resources to support children and young people with special educational needs. These resources are allocated to schools based on the educational needs profile of each individual school. As outlined in the recently revised SET guidelines, hours allocated must then be used to support the children and young people identified as requiring this additional teaching support, this includes those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The guidelines also outline that schools must use their resources on the basis of those with the greatest level of need get the greatest level of support.

I would like to clarify that there has been no change made or arising from the recently published SET guidelines for schools in relation to the allocation of SET resources.

Where a school has a concern in relation to their level of SET resources, they should engage with their local special educational needs organiser (SENO) and following this may submit an application for a review of their allocation. If the review identifies additional need the resources are allocated by my department to the school immediately. This means that each school is provided with the resources necessary to enrol students with special education needs (including deaf and hard of hearing students) into mainstream classes in line with school's admission policy.

My department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.