Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 May 2021
488. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Minister for Education if she will review the allocation of special education teaching hours at a school (details supplied); if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the allocation has remained unchanged for the past six years despite the growth in pupil numbers in the school; if she will discuss the allocation with the NCSE; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24308/21]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the allocations for Special Education Teachers, for all primary and post primary schools were updated with effect from September 2019. Schools which were due to receive additional allocations, based on the profiled needs of schools, as set out in DES Circulars 007 and 008 2019, received additional allocations at that time.
Schools which had rapidly developing enrolments each years since that time also received some additonal allocations.
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 9740 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 2-3 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.
The allocations for 2021/22 which are being maintained comprise the allocations which were made for schools from September 2019 plus any additionality achieved since plus any developing hours for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years.
Importantly, additional allocations will also continue to be made for new schools, schools which achieve developing status, and for exceptional circumstances. Schools that qualify for additional mainstream developing school posts also qualify for additional special education teaching allocations to take account of this developing status.
In the event that schools consider that exceptional circumstances have arisen in their school which means that they cannot provide for the special educational teaching needs of pupils in their school due to very significant changes to the school profile occurring, school may seek a review of their allocations by the NCSE. Details of this process are available at https://ncse.ie/review-of-special-education-teacher-supports-where-there-are-exceptional-circumstances-or-needs-arising-in-a-school-2.
