Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 April 2014
52. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of hours of training that are provided to teachers and special needs assistants before they are deemed qualified to use the treatment and education of autistic communication handicapped children approach. [16844/14]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware of this Government's ongoing commitment to ensuring that all children with special educational needs can have access to an education appropriate to their needs. I am satisfied that current arrangements are adequate to ensure that teachers receive the necessary initial education and have access to quality continuous professional development (CPD) programmes during their career so that they are in a position to meet the needs of students. All primary teachers are qualified to teach in any primary or special school classroom. Teachers have access, through the Special Education Support Service (SESS), to continuing professional development in a range of autism specific interventions, including Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) and the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). In relation to TEACCH, SESS works with Division TEACCH, University of North Carolina, USA to provide access to teachers to either a two-day or five-day course. The two-day TEACCH course consists of 14 hours training and the five-day TEACCH course consists of 35 hours training.
I wish to advise the Deputy that SNAs and teachers have separate yet complementary roles. The class teacher is responsible for educating all pupils in his/her class, including any pupil with a special educational need. In this task, the teacher may be supported by a learning support teacher and/or resource teacher. SNAs are allocated to schools to enable them to support pupils with disabilities who also have significant care needs. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. If specific training is required, the board should liaise with the Health Service Executive in order to ensure that the HSE provides guidance and/or training that enable the SNA to meet the care needs of the pupil in an appropriate manner.
