I wish to advise the Deputy that this Government is investing heavily in supporting our children with special educational needs, with €1.8bn being spent annually, about €1 in every 5 of the education budget.
All mainstream schools are provided with special education teachers based on the profiled needs of their school.
There are currently almost 14,000 special education teachers in schools, an increase of 37% since 2011.
From September 2017, a new model for allocating special education teachers was introduced. This model allocates special education teachers to schools based on the profiled needs of schools, as opposed to the assessed needs of individual children.
The profiled allocations initially made to schools in 2017 have now been revised to take account of more up to date profiling data, including updated enrolments.
As reprofiling occurs, some schools will gain additional allocations, where the profile indicator data indicates these schools have additional needs. Some schools will receive slightly reduced allocations, where the data indicates less need.
The data on which the revised allocations are based are set out in my Department's Circulars 007/2019 for primary schools and 008/2019 for post-primary schools.
The provision of a profiled allocation is designed to give a fair 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 level of need in each school.
Schools are frontloaded with resources, based on each school’s profile. The allocations to schools include provision to support all pupils in the schools, including where a child receives a diagnosis after the allocation is received by a school, or where there are newly enrolling pupils to the school.
Notwithstanding this, adjustments can be made for schools which achieve rapidly developing status due to significantly increased enrolments, or where exceptional needs arise in a school.
In the event of a significant adjustment to the school profile occurring, for the school referred to in the Deputy’s question, or for other local schools in the area, which may arise from a school closure in the region, this can be taken into account.
As considerations are ongoing with regard to potentially amalgamating the closing school with another school in the area, it is not yet clear where the pupils from this school will enrol next September.
However, if there is a significant effect on the enrolments of a local school, from September 2019, account can be taken of this adjustment.
