I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of locally based Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for the allocation of Special Educational needs supports to schools, including Low Incidence Teaching Hours (LITH) support for students with special educational needs (SEN) arising from a disability. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.
Separately all mainstream schools have a permanent allocation of additional teaching resources to provide for children who have learning support needs or whose educational psychological assessment places them in the high incidence, or less complex, disability category. It is a matter for individual schools to use their professional judgement to identify pupils who will receive this support and to use the resources available to the school to intervene at the appropriate level with such pupils. Schools are supported in this regard by the National Educational Psychological Services.
My Department provides guidelines for schools in relation to the utilisation of additional teaching resources which have been allocated to them. These include Circulars SpEd 02/05 and 70/2014 on the Inclusion of Pupils with Special Educational Needs, and the National Educational Psychological Services (NEPS) Continuum of Support Guidelines.
Schools may differentiate the level of learning support granted to ensure that available resources are used to support children in line with their needs and that support is provided to those pupils that need it most.
The NCSE does not make any reduction in the resource hours allocations it makes to schools, to support pupils who have low incidence disabilities, in circumstances where pupils have improved academic performances.
Where schools have distributed additional teaching support to pupils, from within their general allocations of hours, or from the totality of their resource allocations, schools allocate hours taking into account each child's ongoing individual learning support needs, in accordance with the Continuum of Support Guidelines.
My Department encourages parents and school authorities to engage locally regarding pupils' education. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child’s special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.
