Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 February 2018
198. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 131 of 26 September 2017, the status of an appeal by a school (details supplied) in respect of the provision of a SNA; if a decision has been made under the NCSE appeals process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5609/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.
The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014. In considering applications for SNA supports for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the pupils' needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources.
Details of SNA allocations which have been made to schools for the 2017/18 school year have been published by the NCSE on their website at http://ncse.ie/statistics.
Where a school has received its allocation of SNA support for 2017/18, but wishes new enrolments or assessments to be considered, which were not taken into account when the initial allocation was made, they may continue to make applications to the NCSE.
The NCSE Appeals Process may be invoked in the following instances:
- by a parent or a school where it is considered that a child was not granted access to SNA support on the grounds that Department policy was not met in accordance with Circular 0030/2014; or
- a school may also appeal a decision, where the school considers that the NCSE, in applying Department policy, has not allocated the appropriate level of SNA supports to the school to meet the special educational and/or care needs of the child(ren) concerned.
The NCSE have confirmed that to date no formal appeal has been received from the school.
All schools have the contact details of their local SENO and parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available at http://ncse.ie/seno-contact-list.
