Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 November 2022
605. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education if her Department has assessed the impact that the cut to support teaching hours has had on girls’ national schools in the Dublin area; if any steps can be taken to alleviate the negative impact that it is having on such schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55258/22]
View answerI would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following:
The Special Education Teacher (SET) Allocation model was introduced in 2017 to allocate the total number of available SET posts on the basis of the educational profile of each school and replaced the previous diagnosis led approach for the allocation of additional teaching time to students with special educational needs and is a more transparent and equitable way of allocating teaching resources to schools.
School profiles have now been updated to take account of the latest available data including enrolments and the resulting allocations are effective from September 2022 and will remain in place for two years.
In relation to girls only National schools in Co Dublin in the most recent re-profiling 19 schools gained as part of the re-profiling and 12 lost and 7 saw no change in their allocation.
The allocation of special education teachers to mainstream schools is based on a school’s educational profile, which comprises two components:
- Baseline component provided to every mainstream school to support inclusion, assistance with learning difficulties and early intervention, and
- A school educational profile component, which takes into account:
- The number of pupils with complex needs enrolled to the school.
- The learning needs of pupils as evidenced by standardised test results for literacy and numeracy.
- The social context of the school including disadvantage and gender.
A value is applied for each student counted in the complex need category in each school. The data for the complex needs component is now sourced from the HSE Children Disability Network Teams (CDNT) for children who are entering junior infants who have had an assessment or who have been put on a waiting list for assessment.
Data has been received from the HSE (CDNT) on the number of new entrants with complex needs to primary schools and this data has been incorporated into the model.
The HSE’s procedures for determining access to Children Disability Network Teams are outlined in the National Policy on Access to Services for Children & Young People with Disability & Developmental Delay (HSE 2016) www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/disability/progressing-disability/pds-programme/documents/national-policy-on-access-to-services-for-disabilities-and-developmental-delay.pdf
Access is based on the child’s functioning capacity across a range of domains, as opposed to being based on a formal diagnosis of disability.
In cases where a school has no complex needs value in their allocation letter, this indicates that no complex needs value data was available to the model as no complex need data was returned for the school by the relevant CDNT.
Circulars 20/2022 and 21/2022 provide further details in relation the components which make up a schools educational profile.
A school may 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 appeal, they should contact the NCSE at www.ncse.ie.
