The NCSE has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews. My Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations.
The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills.
SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management of the school. 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.
My Department has now published The Roadmap to the Full Reopening of school.
This roadmap sets outs how schools will reopen for all students, including students with special educational needs, from the end of August.
It envisages what the operation of our schools will look like upon reopening and contains a range of guidance on the measures to be implemented in schools in order to minimise the risk of the introduction, or spread, of infection in schools.
The Roadmap provides details of a range of Additional Supports which will be made available to schools to implement their Covid-19 Response Plan and to operate in a sustainable way.
These supports include:
- An enhanced Minor Works Grant to support full implementation of COVID-19 response plans
- Employing an aide to help with the school re-opening logistics;
- Additional financial supports to provide for additional cleaning, hand hygiene and PPE costs under the COVID-19 response plans;
- Increased management support to primary schools;
- Extending the current pilot supply panel for substitute teachers on a nationwide basis at primary school level;
- 1,080 additional teaching posts at post primary school level including 120 guidance posts;
- Enhanced supervision supports for post primary schools.
All of these measures will support the return of children with special educational needs to schools in August.
However, the Department is also making additional provision for special schools and special classes, in recognition of the particular challenges that these schools and classes will face dealing with children with complex medical and care needs.
Additional NEPS psychologists will be appointed to provide enhanced services to support the wellbeing of our school communities at this time, with a particular emphasis on the wellbeing of our special school communities.
Special schools will receive funding equivalent to 10 days, for the purposes of employing an aide to assist with the logistics for preparing for reopening.
The Minor Works Grant at Primary and Post Primary level include enhanced rates in respect of students in special classes and schools. This will facilitate preparatory works to be completed in schools to facilitate reopening such as refurbishment of toilets and reconfiguration of school spaces.
The additional per capita funding being provided for pupils in special schools and special classes recognises the additional needs that these pupils have and the additional measures that schools may be required to take to support them.
Special schools and schools with special classes where there is a teaching principal will receive one release day per week. Those schools with admin Deputy Principals will be provided with 16 release days.
The Department is also supporting the replacement of all absences of SNAs in school settings.
Enhanced COVID-19 rates are payable in respect of students attending special schools and special classes attached to mainstream schools to assist with the extra costs associated with the cleaning of classrooms with a small number of students, operating specialist provision.
The COVID-19 capitation grant will also be the mechanism through which additional funding will be provided to cater for costs related to hand hygiene measures and PPE requirements under the COVID-19 Response Plan. Additional provision for this purpose will be confirmed with the establishment of the drawdown framework of suppliers.
For the Special Education Transport Service, funding supports will be made available to schools for the provision of masks or visors to School Bus Escorts where required, bearing in mind the SEN needs of the child/children on the service, and where physical distancing cannot be maintained.
It is also recognized that pupils with SEN will require particular support at the time of transition back to school including supporting their well-being, reducing potential anxiety and planning learning experiences that take account of the effect of school closures on their progress.
Approximately 15,000 pupils with SEN will have availed of the Department supported summer provision and all records of progress for these children, whether the programmes were delivered in school or home settings will be available to their schools to support planning for their needs in the new term.
Finally it is recognised that some children who have complex medical or special educational needs may not be able to return to school at the end of August because the relevant public health guidelines indicate they are at “very high risk”.
These students’ schools will provide additional supports for these students through designated teachers from within the staffing resources of the school.
Schools will have discretion to manage and redistribute their teaching support resources in order to best meet the learning needs of their pupils/students, including pupils/students at ‘very high risk’ to COVID-19.
During the period of school closures the Department provided schools in the primary and special school sector and at post-primary level with a series of “Continuity of Schooling Guidance” documents to help education professionals and parents to support children learning in a remote environment. The events surrounding COVID-19 and the public health restrictions which resulted in the emergency closure of schools to learners has highlighted the absolute necessity for schools to be agile in how they can provide for continuity of teaching and learning in the future.
The continuity of teaching and learning during the emergency period was achieved with significant additional effort from all school staff working remotely to ensure students were supported during this time. Most schools put in place arrangements to communicate with students and parents demonstrating innovation and resilience by providing flexible local responses.
The Department is updating its Continuity of Schooling Guidance documents to support schools in responding in an agile way in the event of localised school closure or to continue to support pupils with medical or special educational needs who cannot attend school.
Guidance will also provide for additional strategies to support children with ASD where it is likely that the impact of school closures will have been significant so that learning experiences, routines and sensory needs should be carefully planned.
The return to school package includes enhanced allocations to support children, including children with special educational needs, to be able to return safely for the forthcoming school year.
