Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2020
761. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if persons (details supplied) will receive assistance in respect of the ECCE year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12058/20]
View answerThe Early Childhood Care and Education programme (ECCE) is a two year pre-school programme. There is no routine provision for a third year, as this may not be in the best interests of a child and may lead to breaching the statutory school starting age.
The application for an overage exemption referred to by the Deputy was declined as the child would be 6 years and 3 months starting school if granted an exemption.
Overage exemptions were introduced at the onset of the ECCE programme in 2010. At that time ECCE operated for a 38 week period, or one programme year. For some children with special/additional needs, attending preschool five days a week was not feasible so, therefore, an allowance was made. Their ECCE place was split over two years, e.g. a child may have availed of three days ECCE provision in year one and two days in year two. In order to facilitate this, in the cases where the child would have been overage for ECCE in the latter year, an overage exemption was granted.
Following the introduction of a second ECCE from September 2018 the original rationale for an overage exemption was considered to be no longer valid.
It is important to note that this provision of an overage exemption by my Department for the ECCE programme was never intended as a mechanism to delay a child’s entry to primary education or to address any issue of non-availability of a school place.
The overage exemption process has been the subject of a consultation process and a report was produced by the National Disability Authority (NDA). A key finding of this report is that it is in children's best interest to enrol in primary school with their peers and to transition to becoming a teenager with their peers. It is worth stressing that the only rationale underpinning these considerations is what is in the best interests of the child.
The report also seeks to ensure that schools offer all the assistance necessary to meet the child's needs, with the assistance of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). I would urge the family to make contact with the NCSE in this regard.
