Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 July 2012
270 Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will instruct the National Council for Special Education to extend the schools’ appeals process it intends to have in place for the 2012-13 school year allocation process to parents. [32422/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs I advised the Deputy last week, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is developing an appeals process which I understand will be in place when schools re-open in September 2012.
The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot speculate on the details of the process until it has been finalised by the NCSE.
However, I understand that appeals will be considered on the following grounds: (i) That Department of Education and Skills' policies were not adhered to or (ii) That due account of the evidence of educational needs of the child (in relation to additional teaching hours) and care needs of the child (in relation to SNA support) or the resourcing available within the school was not taken into account when applying the Department of Education and Skills' policy or (iii) A combination of (i) and (ii) above.
I have arranged for the NCSE to inform the Deputy directly when the details of the process are finalised.
271 Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a list of the 2012-13 resource teachers and special needs assistant posts allocations and the schools to which they have been allocated in the Dublin 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 areas. [32423/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports including Resource Teaching and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the budgetary and staffing resources available to my Department.
SENOs are currently notifying schools of their Resource Teaching and SNA allocations for 2012/13, based on the number of valid applications received and, in the case of SNA support, the extent of the care needs of qualifying children.
The NCSE has published information in relation to resource teaching and SNA allocations on a county by county and school by school basis on its website www.ncse.ie. The information requested by the Deputy is therefore available on the NCSE website.
