Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2021
396. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education the extent to which special needs requirements as set out by the relevant school authorities continue to be met in full at primary and second-level schools throughout the country including County Kildare; if particular delays are being experienced in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57581/21]
View answer410. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education the extent to which she remains satisfied regarding the adequacy of the number of special needs teachers and SNAs in all primary and second-level schools throughout County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57595/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 396 and 410 together.
The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for Government. The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.
Very significant levels of financial provision are made to ensure that children with special educational needs, including those in Kildare, can be provided with an education appropriate to their needs.
The State currently spends in excess of 25% of its annual education and training budget (€9.2 Billion) on making additional provision for children with special educational needs.
This represents an increase of over 60% in total expenditure since 2011, at which point €1.247 Billion per annum was provided.
Since 2011, the number of special classes in mainstream schools has increased by almost 386% from 548 to 2,118 for the 2021/2022 school year. Of these 1,524 special classes are in primary schools.
Budget 2022 announced details of €9.2 billion in funding for education and includes funding for an additional 1,165 SNAs (in 2022) to provide support to children with special educational needs, which will bring the total number of SNAs to 19,169 at the end of December 2022. This represents an increase of 81% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide, including schools in Kildare. It has well established structures in place for engaging with schools and parents. NCSE seeks to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all children who have been identified as needing special education placements.
NCSE is planning a further expansion of special class and special school places nationally, to meet identified need. This process is ongoing.
It is open to any school to make an application to the NCSE for the establishment of a specialized provision and where sanctioned, a range of supports, including capital funding, is made available to the school.
Budget 2022 provides for an additional 360 special class teachers in 2022, which will provide for over 1,700 special class places. 126 special schools provide specialist education for approximately 7,500 pupils annually with over 1,400 teachers. Two new special schools have also opened recently, one in Dublin and one in Cork.
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.
Budget 2022 provides for the creation 980 new teaching posts in special education. This new investment is required to meet the needs of students with special educational needs enrolled in mainstream classes; students to be enrolled in new special classes and new special school places and the needs of new and developing schools.
The new allocation is broken down as follows:
- 620 of the new posts will provide additional support for children attending mainstream classes including new and expanding schools
- 360 posts will facilitate the opening of 287 new special classes providing over 1,700 new places in 2022 and 140 new special school places
A new model for allocating special education teachers in respect of students with special needs enrolled in mainstream classes was introduced in 2017. The Special Education Teacher allocation process provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile. The profile of each school takes account of enrolments and a number of other factors that are considered to be indicative of the level of need in each school. There is a commitment to update profiles on a regular basis with the last update being for the 2019/20 school.
In addition, there is a provision for schools to seek additionality through the Exceptional Needs Review process if there is a significant change in their level of need in between profile updates.
The additional 620 SET posts will be allocated to schools based on updated SET school profiles in 2022.
The criteria for qualification for mainstream school developing school posts are set out in the Primary and Post Primary School Staffing Schedule for the 2021/22 school year.
Schools who qualify for additional mainstream developing school posts in accordance with these criteria also qualify for additional Special Education Teaching Allocations to take account of this developing status.
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.
The allocation of 1,165 SNAs announced in Budget 2022 is to meet the care needs of pupils in 2022 and will enable the establishment of new special classes, creation of new places in special schools, support children in mainstream classes for the 2022/23 school year.
Where circumstances change during the course of the 2021/22 school year that materially increase the level of care need in a school to the extent that the school can clearly demonstrate that it cannot be met within the existing SNA allocation, the school may apply to the NCSE for a review. Detailed information on the NCSE exceptional review process is published on the NCSE website ncse.ie/for-schools
Circular 0029/2021 has been published and advises schools of the arrangements for the allocation of SNAs for the 2021/22 school year. SNA allocations for special classes and special schools are not affected by this arrangement.
