Officials from my Department have sought more information from the Deputy's office about the child in question in order to address the specific concern raised.
Since September 2018, the duration of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is two full programme years. In order to be eligible for the ECCE programme in September, a child must have turned 2 years 8 months on or before 31st August and must be less than 5 years 7 months at the end of June of the pre-school year.
Parents of children with special needs may apply for an ECCE Overage Exemption on behalf of their child for the 2019/2020 pre-school year provided that the child has not availed of their full ECCE allocation of 2 years and that the child will not reach 6 years of age during the exemption year. Applications for ECCE Overage Exemptions must be submitted in writing to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) and must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a medical specialist (not a GP or public health nurse) stating that it is in the best interest of the child to avail of a further year in pre-school.
The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a model of support designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the ECCE programme. AIM support is currently only available to children registered on the ECCE programme (or other DCYA childcare programme where the child is also eligible for ECCE). AIM supports may be applied for in respect of a child participating on ECCE through an overage exemption.
AIM Level 7 provides additional assistance in the pre-school room where this is critical to ensuring a child’s participation in the ECCE programme. In line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, AIM does not fund Special Needs Assistants (SNAs). Rather, it provides financial support to the pre-school provider, which can be used either to reduce the adult to child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance to the pre-school room. Accordingly, AIM Level 7 assistance is a shared resource for the pre-school setting.
However, when a child has exhausted their entitlement to 2 full years of pre-school and is no longer registered on ECCE, AIM supports are not available to that child. The HSE may be in a position to provide support to a child in this situation. Where the HSE has provided support for a child attending their first and second year of pre-school and the parents wish to access support for a third year, the HSE will attempt to facilitate this request, subject to the availability of resources and other service demands.
Finally, supports are available for school-aged children through the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), an agency of the Department of Education and Skills, to support children in a primary school setting.
