Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 February 2016
463. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills to issue a policy recommendation to all schools that children with special educational needs receive individual education plans, along with advice on the creation and implementation of these plans, in order to ensure consistency across schools. [4062/16]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that schools are currently encouraged to use individualised planning through policy guidance, support, and training. Inspection reports note that the majority of schools now use some form of personal education planning for children with special needs.
A number of guidance documents have been provided for schools from the National Educational Psychological Services, the National Council for Special Education, and the Special Education Support Services.
These documents contain information for schools, guidance, and sample Pupil Plan templates which schools may wish to refer to, or use:
http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/Educational-Psychologist-NEPS-/neps_special_needs_resource_pack.pdf
http://www.ncse.ie/uploads/1/final_report.pdf
http://www.sess.ie/resources/teaching-methods-and-organisation
The guidance notes that good practice is that the deployment of all additional individualised supports, both teaching and non teaching, which are provided to support children with special needs should be linked to a personalised planning process for the pupils for whom the support is being provided.
