Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
627. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of families that avail of the summer education programme; the geographical spread by county; and the number of families that are repeat users with the same teacher in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019. [34470/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe purpose of my Departments extended school year (ESY) scheme – also known as July provision –scheme is to provide funding towards an extended school year for children with a severe or profound general learning disability or children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The scheme was developed to reduce potential regression in learning associated with these specific categories of special education needs over the summer holidays.
There are two elements to the July Provision Scheme
School Based July Provision – Schools that have special classes for autism and/or severe and profound learning disability can participate in the July Programme. The Department contacts all eligible schools each year to invite them to participate in the programme and extend their special classes into the month of July.
Home Based July Provision – where eligible students cannot be accommodated in a school based programme, funding may be provided towards the provision of 40 hours home based tuition.
Details in relation to the number of children accessing the scheme from 2014-2018 are set out below. Figures for 2019 will not be available until the end of the year.
Table 1. No of children accessing the scheme
|
Year |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
No of children |
6,731 |
7,893 |
8,767 |
9,446 |
10,150 |
A more detailed breakdown of this data for each of the years in question is a resource intensive process and is therefore not readily available to be provided to the Deputy.
