Holly Cairns
Ceist:288. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Education if she will immediately make available the SNA allocations for secondary schools in Cork South West for the 2022/2023 academic year. [28817/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 2 June 2022
Ceisteanna (288)
Freagraí scríofa
The number of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in our schools is at unprecedented levels.
Budget 2022 provides for an additional 1,165 SNAs to provide support to children with special educational needs. This will bring the total number of SNAs to 19,169 by the end of 2022. This represents an increase of 81% in SNA numbers since 2011 when 10,575 SNAs were working in our schools.
The availability of SNAs is critical to the inclusion of students with significant care needs in education and in school life.
SNAs carry out very important care functions for children with care needs in the school. The purpose of their role is to enable children with significant care needs to attend school and participate in school activities to the maximum possible extent.
The purpose of the SNAs in the classroom is to address the immediate physical care needs of the student and encourage their independence. Over time, with their assistance and support, students will become more independent and self-autonomous in these matters.
SNAs are whole school resources to be allocated to meet the needs of those students in greatest need.
A key consideration in the allocation of SNAs is to ensure that those students with the greatest level of care needs receive the most support. This is a key principle underlying Department policy on special education. The allocation system must be objective and fair with the capacity to take account of local and individual circumstances.
The SNA allocations for all schools for the 2022/23 school year were published on the 31st May and are available on the NCSE website
SET Hours and SNA Allocations – National Council for Special Education (ncse.ie).
Many students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) enrolled in mainstream classes do not have significant care needs and are supported through the Special Education Teacher (SET) allocation in line with their need.
In mid-April Department officials issued updated staffing allocations for the 2022/23 school year to include SET allocations. This ensured that schools were aware of their teaching resources and this allowed them to make the necessary arrangements to ensure that the teaching and learning needs for pupils with SEN can be properly supported. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has also provided guidance and support to schools to assist them in ensuring that the resources being provided are best managed to meet the needs of pupils with SEN. The support includes training and advice from special education professionals within the NCSE as part of the NCSE regional support teams.
The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) are also available to support schools and teachers in providing a Continuum of Support to their students with SEN.