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School Staffing.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 February 2004

Wednesday, 18 February 2004

Ceisteanna (141)

Dan Neville

Ceist:

210 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science when a special needs assistant and resource teacher will be allocated to a person (details supplied) in County Limerick who has Down's syndrome. [5276/04]

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Freagraí scríofa

My Department received applications for special educational resources from the school. On 9 February an application for the pupil was received.

SER applications received between 15 February and 31 August 2003 are being considered at present. More than 5,000 applications were received. Priority was given to cases involving children that started school last September. All of these cases were responded to at or before the commencement of the current school year.

The balance of more than 4,000 applications was reviewed by a dedicated team comprising members of my Department's inspectorate and the National Educational Psychological Service. They are being further considered after surveys on SER provision were carried out in the past year. Account is also being taken of the data submitted by schools as part of the recent nationwide census of SER provision.

Processing applications is complex and time consuming but my Department is endeavouring to do it as quickly as possible. My officials will then respond to all applicant schools. Pending a response, schools are advised to refer to circular 24/03 that issued last September. It contains practical advice on how to achieve the most effective deployment of resources already allocated for special educational needs.

Processing applications received after 31 August 2003, including the one referred to by the Deputy, will be considered after discussions on a weighted system of allocation of resource teaching support. A further communication will be sent to schools in this regard.

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