Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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322. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the number of children without an appropriate school place for this September. [30860/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is fully committed to supporting all children with special educational needs to achieve their full potential.

399 new special class have been sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year, of these 287 are at primary level and 112 are at post-primary level. These will be added to the existing 3,335 special classes nationwide increasing the number of special classes by 103% since 2020.

Just under 3,300 children and young people were identified to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) under the new parents’ notification process by mid-February 2025 as needing a special educational placement for the 2025/26 school year. Close to 4,000 places are available nationwide between the new provision provided and through the normal movement of students from primary to post-primary and students finishing post-primary.

The work now is ensuring that these children enrol in these available places.

In April, my department wrote to all schools opening new special classes requesting them to begin admissions processes without delay. The NCSE are engaging closely with schools and patron bodies to ensure that schools offer places to children seeking them as quickly as possible.

The vast majority of schools opening new special classes have opened for admissions. The NCSE is engaging with the small number of schools in Dublin to ensure admission process are initiated as quickly as possible. Where these schools do not quickly move to commence admission processes the NCSE may have recourse to their statutory powers under Section 67 of the Education Act 1998 to direct schools to enrol children.

Minister McEntee and I asked that the department and the NCSE bring forward all timelines for the 2026/27 school year to ensure better planning and to ensure that parents and children are accepted into new special classes at a much earlier point. That has been done and a new date of 1 October 2025 has been set by which parents and schools need to have contacted the NCSE if looking for a special class/school placement for the 2026/27 school year. This is four months earlier than the timeline for this year. I have also asked the NCSE to work with schools to sanction the majority of new special classes for the 2026/27 school year by 31 December 2025 and this aim is outlined for schools and education stakeholders in my department’s recent circular letter.