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Special Educational Needs

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 May 2022

Thursday, 12 May 2022

Questions (106)

Neale Richmond

Question:

106. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Education the status of the provision of special needs assistants for a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23813/22]

View answer

Written answers

The NCSE has responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews. The Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations.

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.

It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.

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

In relation to school in question the NCSE have confirmed that the schools current SNA allocation is 8.83 posts. There are 4.5 SNAs allocated to 2 ASD Special Classes and there are 4.33 SNA posts allocated to mainstream.

The NCSE state the school applied for an SNA exceptional review in June of 2021 – this application was incomplete and the school as advised accordingly on 10th of June 2021. The school applied for another SNA exceptional review in June 2021. This application was reviewed by a SENO and deemed invalid an outcome letter was issued to the school and the ticket was closed on the 9th July 2021.

The school submitted an appeal of the outcome of the Exceptional review, this was processed in line with NCSE procedure and the appeal was not upheld.

The NCSE have confirmed that the school has submitted 5 requests for support in the past 2 years. Support calls/visits were completed for all of these with the exception of the most recent one which was submitted in April 2022 and currently has an Advisor assigned who will engage with the school in due course.

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 timeframe for concluding a review can vary depending on the school context or the nature of the information provided.

Where a school is dissatisfied with how their exceptional review has been processed or is dissatisfied with the outcome of their exceptional review they can appeal. Applications for Appeal may be submitted through the NCSE Schools Portal: ncse.ie/school-support.

All schools have the contact details of their local SENO, and the SENO is available to offer assistance and advice to the school. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.

I hope the above is of some assistance to you.

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