Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 June 2018
77. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the review of the allocation of special teaching hours of a school (details supplied); the expected completion date for the review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25949/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools set out details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.
The revised allocation process replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocation process which provided additional resource teaching supports to schools, to support pupils assessed as having Low Incidence disabilities.
The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.
The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Substantial research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all of the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.
No school, has lost supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. In addition, no school received an allocation, for the support of pupils with complex needs, less than the allocation they received to support such pupils during the 2016/17 school year.
An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided in the 2017/2018 school year to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools.
The additional funding provided additional supports to over 1300 schools who identified as needing additional supports as a result of the new model while ensuring that no school received a reduced allocation.
The provision of a profiled allocation is designed to give a fairer allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the actual level of need in each school.
It is acknowledged and accepted that schools will have some additional pupils with special educational needs enrolling to their school subsequent to the profiles having been developed.
However, for the most part these will be balanced by the fact that some students who had additional teaching needs in the previous year will have left the school. The baseline is also designed to ensure that schools have some capacity to provide additional support to pupils.
Under the new allocation model, schools are provided with a total allocation which includes a baseline allocation for the school and an allocation based on the school’s profile.
Schools are frontloaded with resources, based on each school’s profile, to provide supports immediately to those pupils who need it without delay. Schools therefore no longer have to make applications, for newly enrolled pupils for whom resource teaching hours may have been provided under the old model, or for pupils who have received a new diagnosis, as schools now receive a single allocation for all of their special education teaching needs, based on their school size and profile.
Where a school profile significantly changes following the allocation process e.g. a developing school where the net enrolment numbers significantly increase year on year additional allocations may be made.
The criteria for qualification for mainstream school developing school posts for the 2017/18 school year was set out in DES Circular 17/2017 (Primary School Staffing Schedule) and DES 10,11,12/2017 (Post Primary School Staffing Schedule).
Schools who qualified for additional mainstream developing school posts in accordance with these criteria also qualified for additional Special Education Teaching Allocations to take account of this developing status.
It is also acknowledged that there will be some schools where exceptional circumstances may arise.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) will also be available to support schools where schools have developed and implemented appropriate plans for the deployment of their special education needs teaching resources, but the school considers that further support may be required. This support may involve Continuing Professional Development or further training for school staff, advice in relation to the support plans that are in place, and possibly a review process once schools can clearly demonstrate that exceptional circumstances have arisen in the school.
Details of this review process are available at the following link.
The criteria set out that the exceptional or unforeseen circumstances must be demonstrated to be substantially beyond that which the school profile is intended to provide for, as set out in DES Circulars 0013 and 0014, to the extent that the school is clearly unable to meet the needs of the full cohort of students even when all existing resources have been fully and effectively managed and deployed.
The NCSE will review applications to establish whether the circumstances arising in the school are so exceptional that they are beyond that which could have been anticipated by the school profile and whether the schools requires additional support.
The NCSE has confirmed that they received an application from the school referred to by the Deputy, on 19th April, 2018. The NCSE are reviewing this application to establish whether it fulfils the criteria for an exceptional circumstances review and will be in contact with the school shortly to advise the outcome of this consideration.
