Written Answers Nos. 104 - 114
104. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the new DEIS identification and designation process does not directly measure schools differing student intake profiles (details supplied). [21171/17]
View answerThe DEIS review process was informed by extensive engagement with Education Partners and other key stakeholders, including engagement with relevant academics and practitioners, to explore the potential for innovation in future interventions in schools which cater for pupils at highest risk of educational disadvantage and of not reaching their full potential by virtue of their socio-economic circumstances. One of the many aspects addressed in this wide-ranging consultation was the identification process. Submissions received from Education Partners in June 2015, which are available on my Department’s website, included a range of recommendations relating to the development of a new identification process. These include the variables referenced by the Deputy.
This extensive consultation indicated clear consensus on the need for a new approach to the arrangements for the identification of schools for additional supports. A key demand voiced during the consultation with various stakeholders was for a process that is fair, transparent and responsive to demographic change in a schools situation over time. These views were taken on board in coming to a final decision on the methodology adopted.
As I have detailed previously to the Deputy the approach taken for the assessment of schools under the new DEIS identification process utilises CSO Small Area data as represented in the Haase Pratschke Index of Deprivation (HP Index) combined with DES Primary and Post Primary data supplied by schools. The key data sources are the DES Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases, and CSO data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area. Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools.
I am satisfied that the new DEIS Identification Model used to assess the level of disadvantage among the pupil cohort of a school has been applied fairly using centrally held data adopting an objective and scientific approach which has been uniformly applied for all schools.
I also wish to inform the Deputy that a communication to all schools will issue shortly to provide information on the identification model including details of how the datasets are used to determine a schools level of disadvantage; the importance of data quality to the process and the need for detailed and up to date information from schools.
It is important to note that DEIS supports are just one of a suite of supports provided by the Department of Education and Skills and by other Government Departments and agencies to assist schools in meeting the identified educational needs of their pupil cohorts. These include supports for children with special educational needs, English as an additional language (EAL) supports, Educational Welfare Services and School Meals schemes. DEIS Plans includes specific actions in relation to each of these areas.
It is also important to consider that in addition to supports under DEIS additional resources, to support SEN, EAL and Travellers, are allocated across the school system both in DEIS and non-DEIS schools.
Furthermore it is important to note that as part of my announcement in February in launching DEIS Plan 2017, I made it clear that we would continue to conduct further analysis to examine other strong predictors of educational disadvantage in the context of resource allocation. In view of this, as set out in both the Report on the Review of DEIS and DEIS Plan 2017, the Technical Group will continue its work, supplemented as necessary by additional research and data expertise.
A key objective of DEIS Plan 2017 is to achieve a more dynamic and tailored process for the assessment of schools which will more closely match resources to identified need.
105. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the recent census data now available with regard to assessing the requirement for an additional secondary school for the Newbridge area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21182/17]
View answerMy Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The GIS uses data from the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and my Department's own databases. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises at primary and post-primary level to determine where additional school accommodation is needed.
All school planning areas nationwide are being kept under ongoing review by my Department. This review takes account of updated data from CSO, enrolment and child benefit data and also the impact of existing and planned capacity increases to schools in these areas.
106. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) continues to not make it clear to parents there is no compulsion to pay in the manner in which voluntary contributions are being sought by the school; the justification for requiring parents not in a position to make the voluntary contribution to divulge their personal financial circumstances to the authority of the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21200/17]
View answerVoluntary contributions by parents are permissible provided it is made absolutely clear to parents that there is no question of compulsion to pay and that, in making a contribution, they are doing so of their own volition.
The manner in which voluntary contributions are sought and collected is a matter for school management, however their collection should be such as not to create a situation where either parents or pupils could reasonably infer that the contributions take on a compulsory character.
If parents have a concern that there is some compulsion regarding contributions in a school, they can bring the matter to the attention of my Department who will follow up with the school in question. In this regard, I can confirm that my Department has been in contact with the school referred to by the Deputy.
Apart from those recognised fee-charging second level schools, recognised primary and post primary schools are precluded from charging school fees. No charge may be made, in respect of instruction in any subject of the school curriculum or for recreation or other activities where all pupils are expected to take part.
However, it is permissible for a school to seek payments in respect of extra-curricular activities provided such activities are not obligatory and individual pupils can choose whether or not to participate. My Department's Circular 0065/2010 clarifies certain charges that may be legitimately requested from pupils.
The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, which was published on 6th July 2016, contains a provision prohibiting the charging of fees or seeking payment or contributions for an application for admission to a school or for the enrolment or continued enrolment of a student in a school.
I believe that schools need to be accountable to parents and we need greater levels of communication, engagement and transparency in how schools serve their communities. Better information for parents, including information in relation to the collection and use of voluntary contributions, is an issue that I will be looking at in the context of my Department's work on a Parents' and Students' Charter.
107. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the details of a compulsory contribution and its definition in respect of school payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21201/17]
View answerVoluntary contributions by parents are permissible provided it is made absolutely clear to parents that there is no question of compulsion to pay and that, in making a contribution, they are doing so of their own volition.
The manner in which voluntary contributions are sought and collected is a matter for school management, however their collection should be such as not to create a situation where either parents or pupils could reasonably infer that the contributions take on a compulsory character.
If parents have a concern that there is some compulsion regarding contributions in a school, they can bring the matter to the attention of my Department who will follow up with the school in question.
Apart from those recognised fee-charging second level schools, recognised primary and post primary schools are precluded from charging school fees. No charge may be made, in respect of instruction in any subject of the school curriculum or for recreation or other activities where all pupils are expected to take part.
However, it is permissible for a school to seek payments in respect of extra-curricular activities provided such activities are not obligatory and individual pupils can choose whether or not to participate. My Department's Circular 0065/2010 clarifies certain charges that may be legitimately requested from pupils.
The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, which was published on 6th July 2016, contains a provision prohibiting the charging of fees or seeking payment or contributions for an application for admission to a school or for the enrolment or continued enrolment of a student in a school.
I believe that schools need to be accountable to parents and we need greater levels of communication, engagement and transparency in how schools serve their communities. Better information for parents, including information in relation to the collection and use of voluntary contributions, is an issue that I will be looking at in the context of my Department's work on a Parents' and Students' Charter.
108. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review a staffing appeal by a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21205/17]
View answerThe criteria used for the allocation of teaching posts are published annually on the Department website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September.
The staffing schedule operates in a clear and transparent manner and treats all similar types of schools equally irrespective of location.
The staffing arrangements at primary level also include an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to the Primary Staffing Appeals Board.
The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for consideration by the Appeals Board at its April meeting. The Appeals Board determined that the appeal did not warrant the allocation of an additional post for the 2017/18 school year.
The Appeal Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.
109. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason under the new model of allocation of special needs resources there will be no consideration given to schools that have additional children with complex needs joining their school over the next two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21258/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools were published on 7th March 2017.
These Circulars set out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.
The revised allocation process replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocation process which provided additional resource teaching supports to schools, to support pupils assessed as having Low Incidence disabilities.
The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.
Allocations based on the school profiles were issued to all schools on 7th March. Details of the special education teaching allocations have also been published on the NCSE website.
The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Substantial research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all of the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.
No school will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. In addition, no school will receive an allocation, for the support of pupils with Low Incidence disabilities, less than the allocation they received to support such pupils during the 2016/17 school year. No allocation made for such pupils by the NCSE will be removed from schools as long as that pupil remains in the school.
An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools. This is additional to an increase of 41% in the number of resource teachers allocated to schools annually by the NCSE since 2011.
The additional funding will provide additional supports to over 1,200 schools which are identified as needing additional supports as a result of the new model. Supports for children with special educational needs are a key priority for this Government. The new funding will ensure that all schools receive a sufficient allocation of special education needs resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils, including pupils who have yet to enrol in their school, who require such support.
Under the new allocation model, schools will be provided with a total allocation which includes a baseline allocation for the school and an allocation based on the school’s profile.
The provision of a profiled allocation will give a fairer allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the actual level of need in each school.
Schools will be frontloaded with resources, based on each school’s profile, to provide supports immediately to those pupils who need it without delay. This will reduce the administrative burden on schools as schools will no longer have to complete an application process annually and apply for newly enrolled pupils who require resource hours. Children who need support can have that support provided immediately rather than having to wait for a diagnosis.
Schools will therefore no longer have to make applications, for newly enrolled pupils for whom resource teaching hours may have been provided under the old model, or for pupils who have received a new diagnosis, as schools will now receive a single allocation for all of their special education teaching needs, based on their school size and profile.
The new allocations to schools will include provision to support all pupils in the schools, including where a child receives a diagnosis after the allocation is received by a school, or where there are newly enrolling pupils to the school.
All allocations to schools include a supplementary provision, which has been referred to as the ‘baseline allocation’ which is allocated over and above the profiled allocation.
For students who start school from September 2017, with a specific diagnosis, either in junior infants or transferring from another school, the resources they need will already be in the school under the new model.
It should be noted that this is a brand new model of allocation and is not comparable to the existing model. It is expected that generally, a school’s profile will remain relatively constant from year to year. Each year, some students with additional teaching needs will leave and others will enrol, broadly balancing the school profile. Resources allocated under this model will not normally be adjusted between allocations.
For the introduction of the new allocation model, from September 2017, the NCSE ‘Low Incidence’ allocations which had been made for each school during the preceding 2016/17 school year, have been used to establish the complex needs component of the new model for each school.
A model for the identification of pupils with complex needs in future is being finalized by the NCSE, in consultation with the Health Service Executive and National Educational Psychological Services (NEPS) which will take account of the decision making process and qualification criteria for the selection of children for access to HSE Children Disability Network Teams.
Pupils who qualify under these criteria will be included at the re-profiling stage and will be counted when the next allocations are made to schools.
The NCSE has published details of the appeals process on the NCSE website: www.ncse.ie.
Schools were asked to submit appeals by March 31st 2017. The appeal process will consider whether the data used to calculate their school profile was correct and complete and whether it was correctly applied in the calculation of their 2017/18 allocation.
DES Circulars 0013/2017 and 0014/2017 outline the basis on which the Education Research Centre determined the allocations for all schools.
The model includes provision for exceptional circumstances or where a school’s enrolment levels increase very substantially prior to the next review of the model. The National Council for Special Education will support schools in managing their special education teaching allocations in the first instance. Only in very exceptional circumstances, where it can be demonstrated that the schools profile has changed very significantly since the allocation was made to the school, may an additional allocation of hours be made to the school.
Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers to address the need of pupils with special educational needs are published and available on the Departments website.
The Guidelines will support schools to reflect on how they can review and manage their timetabling practices to ensure the timetable is sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all pupils in their school who have special needs. The Guidelines encourage schools to ensure they deploy their resources appropriately to meet the needs of all of the children in their school who require additional teaching support, including pupils with emerging needs, or new entrants.
110. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he will take to progress the proposed new building programme for a school (details supplied); the timetable now being followed in the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21267/17]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, a project for the school in question was included in the Department's 6 Year Capital Programme announced in November 2015.
My Department is currently finalising the project brief and once this process is complete, my Department will be in further contact with the school. The project will be progressed into the architectural planning process when the accommodation brief has been finalised.
111. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the implementation of action five of Strategic Priority 1 of An International Education Strategy for Ireland 2016 to 2020 (details supplied); and the reason for the delay in following through on this action. [21273/17]
View answerThe amendment of the current stay back permission to which the Deputy refers, has been agreed in principle by officials in both my Department and officials in the Department of Justice and Equality.
It is my understanding that the finer details of the scheme are being finalised, to ensure clarity to those who will seek admission to it, and will be published by the Department of Justice and Equality shortly.
The implementation of the stay back permission is a matter for my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality.
112. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will confirm recent media reports that the money owed by religious orders under the redress agreement will be offset against their legal fees; the estimated total cost of these legal fees by religious order; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21281/17]
View answerIn the aftermath of the publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Religious Sisters of Charity and other congregations who had managed residential institutions, offered additional voluntary contributions of cash and property towards the cost of the response to child abuse.
The Congregation offered an additional voluntary cash contribution of €5m, of which amount €2m has been paid. The Congregation had previously contributed as part of the legally binding collective 2002 Indemnity Agreement.
I understand that the Congregation advised the then Minister for Education and Skills in 2012 that it had decided to waive its claim for legal costs from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) and to offset this claim against the remaining cash contribution of €3m outstanding from the €5m it offered. It advised that the Bill of Costs it had submitted to the CICA was in the amount of €4.89m. The then Government agreed to reckon this set-off as a contribution towards the redress response, the amount of which will be calculated by applying the average discount achieved by CICA on its respondent legal costs. This exercise will be done once CICA has completed its work. The Congregation was advised that in the event that the amount of the set-off calculated on that basis is less than the €3m now outstanding the Government would expect it to make up the shortfall by way of a cash payment.
No other religious congregation has advised that it is offsetting legal costs against outstanding voluntary cash contributions. However, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate advised that it would not be claiming legal costs off CICA. An exercise to calculate the value of this contribution will be carried out once CICA has completed its work. The Presentation Brothers refunded legal costs amounting to €0.6m and this refund has been treated as an additional contribution by that Congregation.
113. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Education and Skills the steps taken recently to deal with an accommodation crisis in a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21283/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department's main responsibility is to ensure schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area.
Parents can choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available, the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available, a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.
The Deputy will be aware that my Department opened a new primary school last September to serve the Drumcondra/Marino/Dublin 1 school planning area, which is adjacent to the school planning area of the school concerned.
I also wish to advise the Deputy that enrolment levels in the school in question would not warrant the appointment of an additional teacher.
114. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will expedite the appointment of a special needs assistant for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21291/17]
View answerSpecial Needs Assistants (SNAs) are provided specifically to assist recognised schools to cater for pupils with disabilities, who have additional and significant care needs, in an educational context and where the nature of these care needs have been outlined in medical and other professional reports as being so significant that a pupil will require additional adult assistance in order to be able to attend school and to participate in education
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.
The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.
In considering applications for SNA supports for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the pupils' needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources. SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource.
Once allocated, the deployment of SNAs within schools is then 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. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.
As the question to which the Deputy refers relates to an individual child, the matter has been referred to the NCSE for direct reply.
