Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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63. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students with special needs without school places, by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50705/25]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students with special needs who have been offered school places but have been unable to take them up due to a lack of resources in the schools involved, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50706/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 64 together.

This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective.

This year the NCSE sanctioned 407 new special classes bringing to 3,741 the number of special classes in our schools. There are new classes in every county in Ireland and with the number of special classes doubling in the last five years, this now means that there are more classes than ever ensuring greater numbers of children can access places in their local school.

These new classes combined with 300 new special school places brings to 2,700 the number of new school places for children with special educational needs for the 2025/26 school year.

The NCSE report that almost 3,300 verified notifications were received by it before the mid-February timeline on behalf of children and young people seeking a special class or special school place for the 2025/2026 school year.

On the basis of providing 2,700 new places and there being an estimated 1,200 places available in special classes and special schools through the normal annual movement of students from junior to senior primary schools, from primary to post-primary and finishing post-primary and special schools, there was sufficient capacity available to meet the level of need known to the NCSE.

The NCSE advise that they continue to work with a very small number of families in Dublin to access available places.

In relation to the provision of accommodation for special education, this year, the approach taken was to maximise the use of existing accommodation in schools to ensure new special classes could open as quickly as possible for the 2025/26 school year. The NCSE also prioritised schools which did not have an existing special class. This has ensured that 80% of the new classes sanctioned are in schools with available accommodation.

Where schools require modular accommodation for new special classes, these projects are being fast-tracked by my department to deliver this accommodation as early as possible. In a small number of instances where a delay in new special class accommodation is expected such as where new modular classrooms are being provided, contingency arrangements are being made with the relevant schools with the support of the NCSE.

It is important to highlight that these schools have been allocated and recruited the teaching staff and special needs assistants (SNAs) for new special classes. These staff are available to support families and students.

Many of the children enrolling in new special classes are already mainstream students in the school and this particularly the case in Dublin where a significant number of the children taking up new special class places are students already attending the school. The NCSE indicate that many schools are using alternative accommodation in the school to host students. Many students are remaining in their existing early years or primary school setting for a short number of weeks until their new special class is available. Where there are no contingency arrangements possible, home tuition can be provided.