Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2015
965. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will allocate resource teaching hours to a student (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37798/15]
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 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.
All schools were asked to apply for Resource Teaching and SNA support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March 2015. The NCSE also continued to accept applications after this date in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed.
The NCSE has now published details of Resource Teaching and SNA allocations for schools for September 2015 on its website at www.ncse.ie.
I understand that the pupil referred to in this question transferred from a school where teaching and SNA support had previously been in place and enrolled to a new school on 14th September, 2015.
The NCSE has advised that it received an application from the new school for SNA support for the pupil on 22nd September. The NCSE has also advised that it recently allocated this school additional resource teaching and SNA support to cater for this pupil's needs.
The deployment of SNA support and organisation of resource teaching support within schools is a matter for individual schools to manage, taking into account each child's individual needs.
Parents who have concerns regarding the manner in which the resources or facilities which have been provided to support their child's education are being applied in school should, in the first instance, raise this matter directly with their school Principal or the Board of Management of the school.
Finally I wish to explain that, for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, have been unable to attend school for a period, my Department may provide a compensatory educational service through the Home Tuition scheme. In this regard, Home Tuition has been sanctioned for the child referred to by the Deputy, taking into account the significant level of previous absences from school.
