Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
998. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education the reason the decision was taken not to conduct a re-profiling exercise of special education teacher allocation in 2021, in view of the previous commitment to do so. [19137/21]
View answerA new model for allocating Special Education Teachers to mainstream schools was introduced from September 2017, based on the profiled needs of schools.
There are now over 13,600 special education teachers allocated to mainstream primary and post-primary schools.
This represents an increase of 40% in the total number of special education teachers allocated to schools since 2011, at which time 9,740 teachers were allocated.
The allocations are based on the profiled needs of schools, and are designed to be updated, based on new school profile data, every two to three years.
For the coming school year, in order to minimise disruption and upheaval for schools as much as possible in light of Covid-19, and to provide for continuity of allocations, the existing special education teacher allocations for schools will be maintained for the 2021/22 school year, with re-profiled allocations now due to be made from September 2022.
This means that schools will not have to engage in an extensive redeployment of posts, or re-clustering, this year.
It also means that schools will have greater levels of certainty as to the staff that they will have in place for September.
It is important to note that no school will see a cut, or reduction, to their special education teaching support next year.
Where schools have growing enrolments year on year, they will receive an increased allocation, pending the next re-profiling. Schools that qualify for additional mainstream developing school posts also qualify for additional special education teaching allocations to take account of this developing status.
Additional allocations will continue to be made for new schools, schools which achieve developing status, and for exceptional circumstances. If a school considers that exceptional circumstances have arisen in their school, which means that they cannot provide for the special educational teaching needs of pupils due to very significant changes to the school profile occurring, a school may seek a review of their allocations by the National council for Special Education (NCSE).
