Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 March 2017
126. Deputy Shane Cassells asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) will be provided with transport to and from the primary school in which their resource hours are allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12535/17]
View answerSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
Currently over 115,000 children, including almost 12,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.
In general, children with special educational needs are eligible for school transport if they are attending the nearest recognised mainstream school that is resourced, to meet their special educational needs under Department of Education and Skills' criteria.
Under the new special education teaching allocation model, all schools receive an allocation for special education teaching resources based on the schools individual profile, rather than based on the diagnosed need of individual children. All schools therefore have allocations of special education teaching support to ensure that all children attending or enrolling to the school may receive additional teaching support. Such support can be provided for a child regardless of the school they attend.
Eligibility for school transport is determined following consultation with the National Council for Special Education through its network of Special Education Needs Organisers.
In this case, the child in question is not attending her nearest school and is therefore not eligible for school transport.
However, my Department is awaiting additional information from a number of agencies and will liaise with the family when further information is received.
