Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children with additional needs waiting for an appropriate school place a month after schools returned from the summer holidays, on a county-by-county basis, in tabular form, for the years 2022 to 2025 date, inclusive. [66618/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is the statutory body responsible for the provision of special education and allocating supports for students with special educational needs.

Through the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places over recent years, there are now over 30,000 students enrolled in special classes and special schools. 2,700 new places were created for the 2025/26 school year and these, together with the over 1,200 existing places due to students moving on from primary schools and post-primary schools, has meant that close to 4,000 specialist places were made available for the 2025/26 school year. 407 new special classes were sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year. Five new special schools were also sanctioned for 2025/26.

The NCSE has advised my department just under 3,300 valid notifications were received by mid-February via their new parent notify service. While parents were asked to notify the NCSE by mid-February the NCSE received further notifications after this date. The NCSE advise that a number of special class vacancies remain in every county in the country.

It is expected that a similar number of special class and special school places may need to be provided over each of the next few years, that was provided in recent years. As more and more special classes open in primary schools and as the overall level of enrolments at primary level reduce, it is expected that over time the normal annual progression of students from primary special classes to post-primary will provide a significant number of places each year for younger students seeking a special class placement. At post-primary level, my department has already written to all schools asking them to prepare to provide on average four special classes each.

The NCSE is currently collating the data and information received by 1 October through the parents notify process and are engaging with schools regarding where specialist provision is best placed for the 2026/27 school year. It is envisioned that the majority of these special classes will be sanctioned by 31 December 2025.

This new timeline was publicised widely and communicated with schools and special education advocacy groups and parent representative bodies. The NCSE also undertook a lot of work at local level to ensure that families were aware of the timeline and process.

The NCSE report a very significant level of engagement and contact from families before 1 October.

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.