Dara Calleary
Question:916. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Education the basis for changing the policy regarding the allocation of special needs resource hours in schools (details supplied). [18171/21]
View answerWednesday, 21 April 2021
Questions (916)
Written answers
I wish to advise the Deputy that the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004 sets out that one of the functions of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is to advise the Minister for Education and Skills, in relation to any matter relating to the education of children and others with disabilities.
In June 2014, an NCSE Working Group Report on the allocation of Special Education Teachers to schools recommended that a new model for allocating resource teaching support to schools, based on the profiled needs of each school, rather than on the diagnosed disability of individual children. http://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Allocating_resources_1_5_14_Web_accessible_version_FINAL.pdf
The working group recommended that a new model for delivering teaching resources to students with special educational needs in schools should in future be based on two components:
Firstly, a school educational profile component; including:
- the number of Students with complex special educational needs.
- the percentages of students performing below a certain threshold on standardised test results.
- the social context of schools, including gender, school location and educational disadvantage.
Secondly, the Working Group recommended that a baseline component should be provided to every mainstream school to support inclusion, prevention of learning difficulties and early intervention, based on school enrolment.
They recommended that this model should replace both the model of allocating resource teacher allocations, based on the individual diagnosis of children, and the general allocation model for children in the mild category of general learning disability and children with additional learning needs.
DES Circulars 0013/2017 and 007/2019 for primary schools, and 0014/2017 and 008/2019 for post primary schools, set out the basis for the model for allocating special education teachers to schools.
The Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile. Under the allocation model, schools have been provided with a total allocation for special education needs support based on their school profile. Schools have discretion in how these resources are deployed.
The provision of a profiled allocation is designed to give a fair allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the level of need in each school.
Schools are frontloaded with resources, based on each school’s profile. The allocations to schools include provision to support all pupils in the schools, including where a child receives a diagnosis after the allocation is received by a school, or where there are newly enrolling pupils to the school.
Guidance for schools on how they should identify children for additional teaching support and as to how to utilise their SET allocations has been provided for schools. This guidance is available at: https://www.education.ie/en/The-Education-System/Special-Education/Guidelines-for-Primary-Schools-Supporting-Pupils-with-Special-Educational-Needs-in-Mainstream-Schools.pdf
and https://www.education.ie/en/The-Education-System/Special-Education/Guidelines-for-Post-Primary-Schools-Supporting-Students-with-Special-Educational-Needs-in-Mainstream-Schools.pdf