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Special Educational Needs Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 September 2020

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Questions (165)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

165. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the number of schools that have appealed their special needs assistant and special education teaching allocations by county. [22966/20]

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Written answers

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) conducts reviews of the allocation of Special EducationTeachers (SETs) and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in circumstances where schools consider that exceptional circumstances have arisen in their school which means that they cannot provide for the special education teaching or SNA needs of their pupil population from within the total allocations provided for them.

In relation to Special Education Teaching (SET) resources, it is acknowledged that there are some circumstances which relate to exceptional or emergency circumstances which could not have been anticipated e.g. where the school profile changes very significantly, or where other exceptional circumstances have arisen in a school and which may require a review of schools capacity to provide additional teaching support for all pupils who need it in the school, or of their utilisation of their allocations.

A process is in place where schools can seek a review of their allocations, including the utilisation of their allocations, in circumstances where a school considers that very exceptional circumstances have arisen subsequent to the development of the profile.

This appeal process, which is managed by the NCSE is available at:

https://ncse.ie/review-of-special-education-teacher-supports-where-there-are-exceptional-circumstances-or-needs-arising-in-a-school-2

Similarly, where schools consider that they do not have sufficient SNA support to meet their needs, where exceptional circumstances have arisen in their schools, they may apply to the NCSE to request a review of their existing SNA allocation on the grounds of exceptional needs arising in the school.

Detailed information on the NCSE exceptional review process is published on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie.

A school can also appeal the outcome of an exceptional review and details of how to do this are here: https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GuidanceSchoolAppealing-Exceptional-Review-outcome.docx

As this question relates to the number of schools that have appealed their special needs assistant and special education teaching allocations to the NCSE, by county, I have referred this question to the NCSE for their consideration and direct reply to the Deputy.

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