Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 September 2011
166 Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills if it is the case that a junior infant cannot be assessed for special needs assistant support for one year; and his views on allowing such assessment to be made after one term in school. [24661/11]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. This now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts.
The NCSE issued a circular to all schools earlier this year advising of the allocation process for the 2011/2012 school year. A key feature of the amended scheme is to provide for an annual allocation of Special Needs Assistant support to eligible schools. This circular also set out that in the case of new applications for SNA support, where the professional report has identified the care needs as being related specifically to behaviour, including such applications for junior infants, in general it will not be possible to consider access to SNA support until the school has set out the specific strategies that have been employed and that have been implemented to minimise the pupil's difficulties and to promote more adaptive behaviours.
In instances where applications have been made for SNA support for junior infants, for care needs such as medical or toileting needs, as opposed to for behavioural reasons, access to SNA support has been allocated for such qualifying infants. Whereas there is no prescriptive timeframe before which a review may take place, it will be expected that schools, before requesting any such review, will be in a position to demonstrate that they have made every effort to manage pupil behaviour and also to manage any SNA allocation that has already been made to their school to best effect.
