Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2021
412. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Education the number of appeals made monthly by schools who were refused the number of SNA or resource hours applied for regarding children and young persons with special needs between 1 September 2020 and 30 October 2021; the number of appeals which were successful; the number of appeals which were upheld; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57614/21]
View answerThe NCSE has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews.
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.
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.
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
The NCSE manages the exceptional review process and handles each case individually. Some review requests can be concluded as an office based exercise, whilst others require a school to be visited in order to observe the current deployment of SNA support in the school setting.
The Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations.
The SNA exceptional review considers the overall profile of needs in the school and is not specific to individual students.
The NCSE have confirmed that during the 2020/2021 school year a total of 778 schools were provided with an increase in mainstream SNA support following an SNA exceptional review. To the end of October 2021, a total of 251 schools have so far received an increased mainstream SNA allocation for the 2021/2022 school year on completion of an SNA exceptional review.
There were a total of 143 appeals of the outcome of the SNA exceptional review process for the 2020/2021 school year. Of these 27 were upheld. There have, so far, been a total of 131 appeals for the 2021/2022 school year. Of these 5 have so far been upheld.
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 appointment of 620 new special education teachers (SETs) to support pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classes. This allocation also covers the needs of new and developing schools.
Since the commencement of the 2017/2018 school year schools have been provided with a Special Education Teaching allocation based on the profile of needs in the school. Schools do not apply for Resource Teaching hours for individual students and have not been required to do so since 2016.
The allocations have remained in place for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years, with some adjustments made over the course of the model for schools which achieved developing status, or successfully appealed on the grounds of exceptional circumstances arising in their schools. Allocations are also provided for new schools which open each year.
A process is available where schools can seek a review of their allocations by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), 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.
If a school wishes to make an exceptional needs review, they may do so at the following link: ncse.ie/for-schools
Details of the SNA appeals received in each month are set out in the following table.
|
2020/2021 school year |
Appeals received |
|
Jun-20 |
3 |
|
Jul-20 |
48 |
|
Aug-20 |
11 |
|
Sep-20 |
10 |
|
Oct-20 |
13 |
|
Nov-20 |
20 |
|
Dec-20 |
13 |
|
Jan-21 |
5 |
|
Feb-21 |
3 |
|
Mar-21 |
5 |
|
Apr-21 |
4 |
|
May-21 |
8 |
|
2021/2022 school year |
Appeals received |
|
Jun-21 |
8 |
|
Jul-21 |
35 |
|
Aug-21 |
31 |
|
Sep-21 |
28 |
|
Oct-21 |
21 |
|
Nov-21 |
8 |
Reviews of SET allocations
In relation to the applications for a review of the SET allocation to schools since 2019 the NCSE have stated that,
- 278 requests from schools for review of their SET allocations were received.
- 233 applications did not meet the criteria for review and have been notified of this decision.
- 45 applications to date met the criteria for review;
- 19 schools were allocated an increase in SET hours
- 23 schools have been scheduled for review in September/October.
