Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special school spaces and special class spaces in the State, by county, in tabular form. [3829/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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.

For the 2024/25 school year there are 3,336 special classes in mainstream schools and 134 special schools in operation. The 134 special schools include 124 special schools supported by the NCSE, 7 hospital schools and 3 schools attached to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) units.

The 3,336 special classes, 2,339 at primary level and 997 at post-primary level, provide capacity for over 20,000 students. Provisional data for the 2024/25 school year indicates that there are almost 19,000 children and young people enrolled in special classes in mainstream schools, 13,353 in special classes in primary schools and 5,587 in post-primary schools. There are over 9,000 students enrolled in the 134 special schools in the current 2024/25 school year.

The NCSE’s ‘Guidelines for Setting Up and Organising Special Classes’ provides information on ratios for each special class type. These guidelines are available on the NCSE's . A full of special classes broken down by county is also available.

The list at the link below provides a breakdown of all special classes and special schools currently in operation for the 2024/25 school year by county.

Budget 2025 has provided for up to an additional 400 new special classes and 300 new special school places nationwide. The NCSE will be sanctioning these new classes for the 2025/26 school year in the coming weeks. In addition, five new special schools will be established for the next school year, two in County Dublin and one each in counties Cork, Monaghan and Tipperary.

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.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of notifications received by the NCSE from parents and guardians by the 1 February 2025 deadline pursuant to her Department’s circular 0080/2024 by county, and by category of need, in tabular form. [3830/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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.

My department works closely with the NCSE on the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. Building on successive budgets, Budget 2025 secured funding 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 special education places for children.

The NCSE recently recruited additional special educational needs officers (SENOs), advisors and team managers. 120 SENOs now operate nationwide, three of these are operating solely in County Waterford. 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. It is expected that the NCSE will sanction a number of new special classes for the 2025/26 school year in the coming weeks.

In October 2024, my department issued a circular letter (0080/2024) to all schools setting out a number of new measures to support the work of the NCSE in forward planning for special education provision. My Department consulted with special education advocacy groups, parent representative bodies and education stakeholders in drafting the new circular letter.

The circular letter also set out a new process whereby parents of a child with special educational needs would notify the NCSE, as early as possible, if a special class or special school place was being sought. In providing this key data to aid planning its also allows the NCSE to provide advice and information to parents on the supports available.

The notifications received are now being examined and validated by the NCSE. Local SENOs are making contact with parents and schools and seeking further information where required. As this is the first year of this new process being in place, the NCSE may also be aware of children needing a special education placement who may have not come through the new notification process.

The recent school closures and impact of Storm Eowyn on households may also mean there is a slight delay in notifications in some instances. Parents are free to continue to notify the NCSE of the need for special class or special school places for their child on an ongoing basis as well.

Once the NCSE has all the relevant reports and verified information on the number of children requiring a school place they will inform my department. A direct response will be provided to the Deputy on this issue in due course as well as soon as the information is available.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements will be available for children this September and beyond.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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97. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the emerging situation in Dungarvan, County Waterford where the families of 22 children have received notice that they cannot avail of a special school place; if she will commit to finding an urgent solution to secure a school space suitable to their individual educational and care needs; if she will commit to working with all stakeholders to increase special school and special class capacity in County Waterford; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3831/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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104. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what steps her Department will take to ensure a child (details supplied) who is on a waiting list for their local special school can access an appropriate special school space in September. [3919/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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105. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what steps will be taken to ensure that a child (details supplied), who is on a waiting list for their local special school, can access an appropriate special school space this coming September. [3921/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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106. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what steps will be taken to ensure that a child (details supplied), who is on a waiting list for their local special school, can access an appropriate special school space this coming September. [3922/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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107. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what steps will be taken to ensure that a child (details supplied), who is on a waiting list for their local special school, can access an appropriate special school space this coming September. [3924/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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108. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she and an appropriate Minister of State will join me in urgently meeting a delegation of parents whose children have been placed on a waiting list for special school spaces in Dungarvan, County Waterford. [3925/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 97 and 104 to 108, inclusive, together.

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 over 3,330.

70 of these classes are in County Waterford, 12 are new for the 2024/25 school year, 7 at primary level and 5 at post-primary level. Budget 2025 provides funding for another 400 special classes and 300 special school places nationwide.

At a local level the NCSE are examining which special schools have capacity to expand and are targeting medium and larger primary schools with no special class or just one special class to open a new special class.

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 SENO's directly using the contact details available on the NCSE website.

The NCSE have recently recruited additional SENO's, advisors and team managers. 120 SENO's now operate nationwide, with three solely operating in County Waterford, SENO's 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 have advised my Department that the local special educational needs organiser (SENO) continues to work closely with the families referred to by the Deputy regarding options for school placements and other special education supports for the coming academic year. The NCSE have also recently visited the school referred to by the Deputy.

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

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements remain available for children with special educational needs. In relation to planning future special school capacity, my Department and the NCSE will continue to review the need for additional special school capacity in Co Waterford.