Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 June 2018
316. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the special needs assistants provided to an organisation (details supplied) can be maintained at the current level rather than having two full-time special needs assistants and one teacher removed from the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24450/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis Government is committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs are supported and given every opportunity to fulfil their full potential.
Special Needs Assistants play a key role in supporting children who have additional care needs to attend school and participate in education.
There will be a total of 15,000 Special Needs Assistants working in our schools by the end of this year. This is a 42% increase on 2011, when the number of SNAs stood at 10,575. The Government now invests €524 m in SNAs annually, as part of a total €1.75 billion investment in special educational needs overall.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible for determining the appropriate staffing levels in special schools.
Special schools are staffed based on their actual current pupil profiles and the disability category of each pupil (full details of Teacher allocation provisions in Circular 0042/2011).
The policy of my Department is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support.
In considering applications for SNA support for individual pupils, the NCSE 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.
SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource.
SNA allocations to all schools can change from year to year as children with additional care needs leave the school, as new children with additional care needs enrol in a school and as children develop more independent living skills and their additional care needs diminish over time.
The NCSE Appeals Process for the provision of SNA support may be invoked 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.
Where a school has received its allocation of SNA support for 2018/19, 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 closing date for receipt of any appeals in regard to SNA allocations is Friday, 28th September 2018.
Special schools may appeal a decision regarding teaching resource allocations to the NCSE, where the school considers that the NCSE, in applying Department policy, has not allocated the appropriate level of teaching support to the school to meet the educational needs of the children in the school concerned.
As this question relates to a particular school, I have referred the question to the NCSE for their direct reply.
