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Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2018

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Ceisteanna (74)

Mick Wallace

Ceist:

74. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he is satisfied with the provision of special educational supports for children in schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22454/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Ensuring that children with special educational needs are supported and given the opportunity to reach their full potential is a key priority for this government.

In 2018, in the region of €1.75 billion will be invested in Special Education, nearly one fifth of the overall Education budget, and up 43% since 2011.

This funding provides for a range of supports and services including additional special education teaching support, access to SNA support, special transport arrangements, building adaptations, enhanced capitation in special schools and special classes, specialised equipment, additional teacher training, the services of the National Educational Psychological Service, ESF Aided Fund for Students with Disabilities at third level; Vocational Training for people with disabilities and Adult Education – once off projects for disability in education.

In recent years, the NCSE has provided my Department with a number of policy advice papers on the provision of supports for children with special needs, all of which are available on the NCSE’s website.

It is intended to bring into effect many improvements to the provision of special educational needs support, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice.

The new model for allocating Special Education Teaching Resources to mainstream primary and post primary schools was introduced from September 2017. The new model allocates teachers to schools on the basis of the profiled educational needs of each school.

Over 13,400 Special Education Teaching posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools for the 2017/2018 school year provides additional teaching support to students with special educational needs, with up to 1,000 schools received additional allocations, where the new model indicates additional need and no school received an allocation of resources less than the allocation they received in the 2016/17 school year.

Approximately 1,440 special classes will be in place, with 140 new Special Classes to be opened in September 2018. This compares to 548 special classes in 2011, an increase of 162%.

Last Friday, I announced that 800 additional Special Needs Assistants will be allocated for the beginning of the next school year, with a further 140 expected to be allocated by the end of the year. I was extremely pleased to be able to make the announcement on Friday, in keeping with the commitment made last year to inform schools of the September 2018 allocation by the end of May; at a time when they can give certainty to school communities at the earliest opportunity. As a result of this allocation, there will be a total of 15,000 Special Needs Assistants working in our schools, a 42% increase on 2011. The National Council for Special Education notified schools of their SNA allocations on Friday last and the details of these allocations are now published and available on their website at www.ncse.ie.

In 2016, I requested the National Council for Special Education to lead a comprehensive review of the Special Needs Assistant Scheme to identify and recommend how, in the future, additional care needs of students, over and above those needs that could be reasonably expected to be managed by teaching staff, should be met and to identify and recommend the most appropriate form of support options to provide better outcomes for students with Special Educational Needs who have additional care needs having regard to the significant amount of State investment in this area.

The NCSE has recently submitted their report to me and the findings and conclusions of that report are now under consideration.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, I recently announced that a demonstration project to provide in-school and pre-school therapy services will be introduced for the 2018/19 school year.

The purpose of the project is to test a model of tailored therapeutic supports that allows for early intervention in terms of providing speech and language and occupational therapy within ‘educational settings’. This innovative pilot will complement existing HSE funded provision of essential therapy services.

As part of the programme, 19 speech and language therapists and 12 Occupational Therapists will be recruited by the HSE to work with the 150 schools and pre-schools. The NCSE will also recruit 2 National Co-ordinators to manage the project.

The provision which is being made ensures that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

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