I propose to take Questions Nos. 145 to 147, inclusive, together.
Copies of the documentation requested by the Deputy can be released to her once she has obtained and provided to the relevant section in my Department the appropriate consent from the parent in question. As outlined to the Deputy previously the NCSE identified placements in June 2011 for the children to whom she referred in her April parliamentary question on the issue. Home tuition was approved for these children for a 4 week period from the start of the 2011/2012 school year as the placements previously identified by NCSE had been assigned to other children and were no longer available.
The meeting referred to by the Deputy took place in July 2011 at which point parents in attendance were advised of a number of placements available. Some placements identified earlier to parents were at this point no longer available. Following this meeting a number of additional placements were identified by the NCSE. One of these placements was in a special classes for autism approved by NCSE. While this placement was identified in September 2011, it did not open until December 2011 as the school needed additional time to prepare itself. In the light of this, Home Tuition was further approved for the child to whom the Deputy has referred until the date that the new class physically opened on the basis that he was unable to access placement during this period. This approval was provided notwithstanding that the child had not been enrolled by then and could not have attended on 14th of October because of this fact. Enrolment of the child in the school was a matter for the parents of the child and the school's Board of Management. The availability of the school's documented policies to the parent is a matter for the school and the parents.
