Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2013
223. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 139 of 15 May 2013, if the policy with regard to July provision of home tuition for children with autism has changed; if children who are siblings, who all have autism will receive 40 hours of one to one tuition each, or if that time will have to be shared; and when that change in policy took place. [25053/13]
View answer230. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse his decision to allocate resource hours under the July provision to siblings based on the school grouping principle rather than to each child in their own right; if he will outline the assistance he will give to parents unable to find tutors that will work alone with a number of children with a severe or profound learning disability or autism. [25117/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 223 and 230 together.
The July Education Programme provides funding for an extended school year for children with autism and children with a severe or profound general learning disability. This Programme is available to all special and mainstream primary schools which have special classes catering for eligible pupils. Where school based provision is not available, 10 hours per week home based provision may be grant-aided to eligible pupils. In cases where there are qualifying siblings, a combined allocation is made. This is consistent with the school grouping principle, where one teacher is allocated to a class of six pupils. Accordingly, it is considered appropriate that a tutor can provide collective tuition in the home to siblings. Under these arrangements, each child is receiving a full 10 hours tuition. In previous years the application process may have failed to identify siblings resulting in double allocations in some cases. This year's application process has corrected this historic deficit. There has not been a change to the scheme's criteria.
