Vol. 495 No. 6
12 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will review the rule applicable to pupils attending special schools where they leave school at the end of the school year following their 18th birthday; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19953/98]
Under present arrangements, children enrolled in special schools may continue to attend until the end of the school year in which they reach their 18th birthday. In exceptional circumstances, the Department will consider sanctioning the continued attendance of a child for a further year where the school authorities confirm that an additional year of schooling would be of particular benefit to the child in question. Such requests are rare and each application is dealt with on an individual basis. Usually, the young adult would have particular problems and may have missed a lot of schooling at an earlier age.
The relevant school inspector is asked to discuss the case with the school authorities and to furnish a report and recommendation. The inspector's report should state whether there are sound educational reasons for allowing the young adult to attend the school for a further year. The Department provides funding to vocational training centres which cater for school leavers who have a moderate learning difficulty and those with a mild learning difficulty who are unsuited to open training centres. The funding in question allows the vocational training centres to employ tutors for literacy and numeracy in respect of trainees between 19 and 25 years of age who may undertake training courses of up to three years duration.
