Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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496. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to urgently intervene to resolve the issues arising from the NCSE’s SNA Review Guidelines 30214, to protect the essential work of SNAs in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61242/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) issues guidance each year to schools regarding special need assistant (SNA) post allocation reviews and the guidance for 2025/26 school year issued on the 12 September 2025.

It is important to clarify some of the concerns raised since publication of the guidelines.

The process for allocating SNAs has been in place since 2014 and is not changing this year. There has been no freeze on SNAs, in fact the number of SNAs in our schools has increased by 43% in the last 5 years alone.

Schools were issued with their allocations for the 2025/26 school year in June and the SNA review window from 15 September to 7 November relates to schools who believe they do not have sufficient SNAs to support their care needs at present.

A school can apply to the NCSE at any time during the school year, as in previous years, for a review where emerging or new care needs arise.

The NCSE has written to all schools since the publication of the guidelines to clarify that a school can request a review during the school year and not just in the review period set out in the guidelines.

The following are the reasons for the timeline of reviews contained in the guidance:

Supports the earlier announcement of allocations for the 2026/27 school year to align with the release of the annual staffing schedule.

Management bodies, staff representative bodies, schools and SNA’s have all requested the Department to ensure that SNA allocations issue earlier each year and ideally should align with the general staffing allocation in February each year.

Supports the SNA workforce by giving them early clarity on their roles.

Facilitates the SNA Redeployment Scheme.

Importantly, the role and responsibilities of SNAs has not changed. SNAs remain responsible for meeting the primary care needs of students with special educational needs. Principals/board of managements remain able to deploy this school-based resource to meet the care support requirements of the students enrolled whom SNA support has been allocated. This ensures schools remain able to provide flexible arrangements in how the SNA support is utilised on a day-to-day basis.

New special classes continue to be supported with additional SNAs each time a new class opens, this has not changed. The NCSE guidelines set out the number of SNAs per each category of special class and there is no change to those baseline allocations.

Any school who has concerns about the level of their SNA allocation should contact their local special education needs organiser. This has always been the case and remains today.

The NCSE assesses the level of need within the school as a whole and this is critical to ensure that the care needs of the entire school are identified and that the school is resourced to meet this identified need. There continues to be separate allocations for mainstream and special classes in individual schools.

When the NCSE completes the SNA review and if additional SNA support is identified as being required it will be provided. This has always been the case.

The NCSE carried out a record number of reviews in 2025 to ensure that children who most needed SNA support could access it. This will continue for 2025/26 school year.

I want to assure you that the Department and the NCSE, through all of our policy and guidance such as resource allocations, take a child centred focus and approach to ensure that all children in our schools with special education care needs are provided with a supportive environment and the resources needed to help them develop and be prepared for life after school.

The NCSE has written to all schools since the publication of the guidelines to clarify these and other concerns.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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497. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the supports provided to teachers to upskill to meet the special educational needs in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61243/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Providing inclusive education to children with special educational needs is a fundamental principle of my Department’s education and training system. This principle is put into practice through the policies of my Department and the Teaching Council and the supports provided to schools, for example through the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and Oide.

Inclusive education (including Special Education) is a core element of all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. Inclusive education, as defined in the Céim standards for Initial Teacher Education, refers to any aspect of teachers’ learning which aims to:

Improve their capacity to address and respond to the diversity of learners’ needs – which specifically includes the needs of children with autism;

Remove barriers to education through the accommodation and provision of appropriate structures and arrangements; and

Enable each learner to achieve the maximum benefit from his/her attendance at school.

By including these as core elements, the Council has taken a high-level approach to ensuring that they inform every aspect of ITE programme design.

In addition, on an annual basis, the Department of Education and Youth provides funding for two distinct categories of post-graduate programmes for Special Education Teachers:

Post-Graduate Diploma Programme of Teacher Professional Learning for Special Education Teachers and

Graduate Certificate in Autism Education for teachers working with Autistic Pupils in Special Schools, Special Classes or as Special Education Teachers in mainstream Primary and Post-Primary Schools.

The aim is to provide substantial theoretical and practical continuing professional development for teachers working with students with special educational needs, contributing to the school’s overall capacity to meet the needs of pupils with special education needs, including autism. In 2025 circa €1.25 million was provided for these programmes to provide for over 300 places.

Through its everyday work, the NCSE aligns its teacher professional learning (TPL) with the Teaching Council’s national framework for teacher professional learning. One of the main aims of the NCSE is to support teachers and schools in a way that builds capacity, supports the inclusion of all children, including students with special educational needs, at a whole school level. NCSE employs a number of specialist roles to support schools and build teacher capacity in areas of concern. These roles include autism advisors and behaviour advisors, who are assigned across regional support teams to provide advice, support and resources to schools.

The NCSE offers bespoke in-school support for either whole school staff, small groups, or individual teachers. The support can be tailored to specific TPL needs within a school, such as, in the areas of differentiation, planning, autism and behaviour.

Also, Oide is currently supporting the implementation of new and revised curricula at both primary and post primary. The professional learning frameworks developed by Oide to support these new curricula are underpinned by Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and place the learner at the centre of the learning experience. The move towards learning outcomes based curricula supports teachers to plan for all learners through adaptable and flexible provision, which accommodates the learner’s voice and choice. Oide recognises that students are diverse and through the provision of a range of supports they invite teachers to examine and alter teaching and learning approaches that meet the needs of all learners.

All professional learning experiences provided by Oide, support teachers in planning for all students in their classrooms.

Oide works closely with colleagues in the NCSE to ensure it can support schools in planning for inclusive education. Oide provide bespoke onsite school-based support which allows teachers and school leaders to respond directly to the needs of learners in their own unique context.

I am committed to ensuring that all teachers, at primary and post-primary level, have the skills they need to support the diverse needs of all our children and young people in our schools. It is critical that our teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to continue to deliver high quality and inclusive education. To that end, I wrote to the Teaching Council in March to initiate a process to move towards a mandatory assessed placement period in a special education need (SEN) setting for all student teachers, supported by appropriate modules. In addition, my Department will continue to work with partners in education to provide a comprehensive range of in-service TPL opportunities that allows those working at all levels of education, to access supports which will benefit all learners.