Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 June 2022
183. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Education if there are any plans to expand the home tuition programme which is available to children with a diagnosis of ASD who are of preschool age to include other developmental disorders such as koolen de vries syndrome. [35035/22]
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.
The applicable criteria under which children qualify for Home Tuition support for the 2022/2023 school year are set out in Circular 0046/2022, which was published on the 23rd June 2022, and can be found at the following link ww.gov.ie/en/circular/22b2a-home-tuition-grant-scheme-20222023-special-education-component/. There are currently no plans to revise these criteria.
