Robert Troy
Question:323. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Education if a school will be able to enrol a child with special educational needs if there are no SET hours. [16433/24]
View answerTuesday, 16 April 2024
Questions (323)
Written answers
I would like to thank the Deputy for the question.
I would like to initially clarify that there is no school in the education system without an allocation of SET hours to support children with special education needs.
Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this Government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.
In 2023, the department spent over €2.6 billion on special education and further progress will be made this year as an additional €113 million will be dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs.
This includes funding to support children with special educational needs in mainstream classes; funding for new special classes and new special school places; additional special educational teachers, special needs assistants (SNAs) and funding for the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).
In 2024, the number of teaching and SNA posts in our schools will increase with an additional 744 teachers and 1,216 SNAs added to deliver up to 2,700 new places for children with special educational needs.
This will mean there will be over 41,500 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.
The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs and reviews.
The SET allocation model for 2024/25 distributes the total available number of Special education Teacher posts in line with each school’s profile of need. The model makes an allocation on the basis of a number of inputs, including enrolment numbers. It also uses school-level data from standardised tests in order to reflect relative levels of overall needed.
The model seeks to distribute teaching resources in the fairest possible manner, taking into account as much evidence as possible in respect of individual schools and evidence in respect of the best possible use of resources. The inputs to the model do not prescribe which children should receive support through the additional teaching resources, schools must adhere to the guidance on the use of SET hours and support all children with additional teaching needs using the continuum of support framework. This was the position in 2017 and remains the position now.
The guidance to schools on the proper deployment and usage remains unchanged and that schools must deploy their SET resources in line with the Continuum of Support. The guiding principle of the continuum is that SET resources usage and deployment continues to be that the student with the greatest level of need should receive the greatest level of support.
The Department acknowledges that every school is different, and that schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. This is always a challenge when we seek to make allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that we have also streamlined the review process for Special Education Teachers and schools who feel that they have received an inappropriate allocation can make this application to the NCSE.
The Department is cognisant that it is possible that unique circumstances may present in a school which could require an urgent review. In such circumstances, the school may apply for this process through the NCSE. Reviews will be conducted by the NCSE, between March and May each year, to better enable schools to plan for the following September.
Appendix 1 of Circular 002/2024 & 003/2024 clarifies what constitutes unique circumstances and provides further information on the SET Review process.
It is also important to note that SET hours are only one component of support for children in mainstream but the most important support is the mainstream class teacher. The pupil teacher ratio at primary level is now 23:1 which means there are more mainstream teachers than ever before in our educational system. There will be 14,600 Special Education Teachers (SETs) supporting mainstream classes in the 2024/25 school year, which is an increase of 1,000 since the end of the 2021 school year. This is the highest number of SET teachers ever in our schools.
Question No. 324 answered with Question No. 321.
Question No. 325 answered with Question No. 321.
Question No. 326 answered with Question No. 317.