Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 March 2018
124. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of an application by a school (details supplied) in respect of the provision of a special needs assistant; if his Department will award additional SNA services to this school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10986/18]
View answerSpecial Needs Assistants (SNAs) are provided 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 allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in Department Circular 0030/2014, which is available on the Department's website at www.education.ie, in order that students who have care needs can access SNA support as and when it is needed. My Department’s policy is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support.
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.
Schools who wish to make applications for SNA support should apply to the NCSE. The deadline for applying for SNA support for the 2018/19 school year was 28 February 2018.
The NCSE aims to respond in May 2018 to valid applications for access to SNA support received by 28 February. SENOs will continue to process applications for access to SNA support which are received after 28 February in the order in which the applications have been received.
The NCSE Appeals Process may be invoked by a parent or a school where it is considered that a child was not granted access to SNA support on the grounds that Department policy was not met in accordance with Circular 0030/2014.
Schools may also appeal a decision, where the school considers that the NCSE, in applying Department policy, has not allocated the appropriate level of SNA supports to the school to meet the special educational and/or care needs of the child/ren concerned.
If a parent considers that their child is not accessing a sufficient level of SNA support they should address their concerns to the school. An appeal would not be relevant in this situation as the efficient and effective deployment of SNA support is a matter for the school principal.
All schools have the contact details of their local SENO and parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available at http://ncse.ie/seno-contact-list.
