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Special Educational Needs Staffing

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2013

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Questions (325)

Dan Neville

Question:

325. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding a special needs assistant in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46582/13]

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Written answers

I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including the allocation of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of Special Education supports and the staffing resources available to my Department. All schools were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/14 school year by 15th March, 2013. The NCSE published details of all of their allocations for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/2014 school year in June of this year. The NCSE has also now published details of the additional SNA allocations which have been made to schools since the initial allocations were made to schools in June. The NCSE published details of these revised allocations on 21st October, 2013. These details are now available on the NCSE website, www.ncse.ie, and detail the allocations made for each school on a per county basis.

The school referred to by the Deputy currently has 0.75 approved SNA post.Schools can contact the NCSE if they have enrolled children who were not considered at the time that the revised SNA allocations were made to schools, or where they are seeking a revision to the quantum of SNA support which has been allocated to them. In general, a revision to SNA allocations will only be made in circumstances where schools have enrolled new pupils, or where schools can demonstrate that they do not have sufficient SNA posts to cater for the care needs of all of the qualifying children in their school. As the Deputy's question refers to an application for SNA support for an individual child, I have referred the this question to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply to the Deputy.

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