Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 April 2016
94. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children with an autism spectrum disorder receiving special needs supports, special needs assistants, resource teaching and so on in primary and secondary schools in the Dublin Mid-West constituency and the number being supported in special classes in the constituency. [7967/16]
View answerChildren with autism may be enrolled in a mainstream school and can attend all mainstream classes. In such cases these children will receive additional teaching support through the learning support and/or the resource teacher and where appropriate will receive access to Special Needs Assistance and assistive technology if required. In circumstances where children with special educational needs require more specialised interventions, special school or special class places are also available. Each special class for autism has a 6:1 pupil teacher ratio at primary level, and 6:1.5 pupil teacher ratio at post primary level as well as Special Needs Assistant support normally amounting to 2 SNAs for a class of 6 children. In December 2014 there were 13,873 students with ASD in the school system Of these students:
- 63 per cent were educated in mainstream classes
- 23 per cent were educated in special classes in mainstream primary and post-primary
- 14 per cent were educated in 118 special schools
- 23 per cent of all students with resource teaching hours were students with ASD
- 25 per cent of all resource teaching posts were allocated for ASD
- 73 per cent of all special classes approved were for ASD
- About 40 per cent of all students with SNA support had ASD
- 69 per cent of all students with ASD accessed SNA support.
The information sought in relation to the Deputy's constituency is not readily available to my Department, however I have arranged for the Deputy's request to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply.
