Holly Cairns
Ceist:650. 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. [12768/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 21 March 2023
Ceisteanna (650)
Freagraí scríofa
I would like to thank the deputy for raising these matters and would like to advise the following:
Enabling children with special educational needs (SEN) to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government.
It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my Department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills.
SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management of the school. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated.
It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.
The NCSE have published the SNA allocations for the 2022/23 school year and they are available at ncse.ie/set-hours-and-sna-allocations.
A school can apply to the NCSE for a review of its SNA allocation if it is insufficient to meet the needs of its students. Detailed information on the NCSE Exceptional Review process is published on the NCSE website. ncse.ie/application-for-sna-exceptional-review.
The Exceptional Review process for mainstream allocations will be available to schools throughout the 2022/23 school year.
The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) allocations for the 2023/2024 school year are presently being developed by my Department and will be advised to schools as soon as possible and in line with previous year timelines.
My Department has allocated 1,165 additional SNA’s to schools in the past year and in Budget 2023 an additional 1,194 SNA’s are being provided to support schools and will be allocated as follows: 735 to support students in new special classes, 124 to support students in new special school places and 335 to support students in mainstream classes.
For the first time ever we will have over 19,000 teachers working in the area of special education and over 20,000 Special needs assistants. Together we have almost 40,000 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.