Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 June 2022
622. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Education the cost to the Exchequer of providing home tuition to SEN children on the grounds that they are without a school placement or an early intervention class placement; if her Department can compare and contrast such cost with that of an in-school place per child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34302/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe purpose of the Home Tuition Grant Scheme is to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school.
The aim of the Department is to meet the needs of families and to ensure every child is allocated a suitable school placement. The preferred approach is that children are educated in school settings where children may have access to fully qualified teachers, individualised education programmes, special needs assistants, school curriculum with the option, where possible and appropriate, of full or partial integration and interaction with student peers.
Accordingly, home tuition is provided as an interim measure only for children for whom a placement in a recognised school is not currently available and should not be regarded as an optional alternative to a school placement.
The scheme provides a compensatory educational service for
- Children with special educational needs seeking an educational placement in a recognised school
- Students, enrolled in schools, with significant medical conditions which has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, major disruption to their attendance at school
- The scheme also provides Home Tuition for pre-school/early educational intervention for children with autism who meet the schemes eligibility criteria.
Each of the strands of the scheme prescribe the hours available for allocation. For children with Autism aged from 2.5 years to 3 years the number of tuition hours available is 10 hours per week. From 3 years, for children with Autism for whom school placements are not available, the number of available tuition hours is 20 per week.
For children with special educational needs over 4 years for whom school placements are not available, the number of available tuition hours is 20 per week.
The applicable criteria under which children qualify for Home Tuition support are set out in Circular 0046/2022.
The hourly rate for a Primary qualified teacher providing tuition to a primary school pupil is €43.34.
The hourly rate for a Post-Primary qualified teacher providing tuition to a post-primary school pupil is €47.55.
A modified rate of €35.69 per hour will apply in a number of circumstances teachers providing tuition to pupils in sectors in which they are not qualified.
Over 1,400 families were supported by Home Tuition grant funding under the various Department Scheme in the 2020/21 school year with an allocation of approximately €17 million.
The profile cost per children with special education needs various greatly depending on their individual strengths and needs. The details of the individual educational needs will inform supports and services which will be required to meet those needs. There are many supports and agencies feeding into this process such as additional supports such as Special Needs Assistants (SNA), Special Education Teachers (SET) and agencies such as National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). Therefore, the cost of an in-school place per child varies greatly from case to case for this reason the comparison with a child on home tuition is not available.
