Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2024
195. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Education if she will acknowledge the concern of parents of children with special needs following the issuing of circular 0002/24 regarding special education teacher hours (details supplied); if the category of complex educational needs is to be removed from the special education teacher hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8704/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI want to thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to clarify some of the concerns that have been raised regarding the Special Education Teacher Allocations for mainstream schools which issued on the 6th February.
At the outset, I would like to clarify complex needs have not been removed – the data which was used since 2017 from the children's disability network team (CDNT) and which is no longer routinely available is being replaced by high quality, verifiable education data.
To ensure that schools and pupils are not negatively impacted all existing hours assigned for complex needs are being maintained for each school.
Children with complex needs are supported in the model by now using school-level data from standardised tests in order to reflect relative levels of overall needed.
In the review of the model consideration was given to those students with multiple needs and who may not have undertaken standardised testing and this has been incorporated in the model.
The allocation model for 2024/25 distributes the total available number of SET posts in line with each school’s profile of need. It seeks to distribute teaching resources in the fairest possible manner, taking into account quality, robust evidence in respect of individual schools. This ensures that resources are in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of children in mainstream.
There will more Special Education Teachers in our schools in September 2024 than ever before – an increase of 1,000 from 2020/21 school year. This is in addition to a significant reduction in class teachers sizes at primary level over three budgets to where our PTR at primary level is now 23:1. This means, more than ever, children with SEN in our mainstream schools are best supported to meet their needs. In addition the model will now be run annually in line with general teacher allocations. This allows schools to better plan their staffing structures and gives them time to arrange clusters in areas where schools share an SET teacher.
There has been a limited change to the method used to allocate SET to mainstream classes. This review involved extensive consultation and visits to schools by the NCSE to look at the strengths and shortcomings of the allocation model. The feedback has been incorporated into the revised model for 2024/25.
The review of the SET model focused on ensuring that we had the best possible data available to inform the distribution of resources to our schools. Our policy relating to supporting all of our children in our schools based on their level of need remains.
The policy that individual schools are required to adhere to is the principle that the allocation is utilised to ensure that those pupils with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support and this remains unchanged.
Therefore the revised profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
The Department acknowledges that every school is different, and that schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. This is always a challenge when making allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that the Department, working with the NCSE has streamlined the review process for special education teachers and schools who have any concerns can engage with the NCSE on their allocation.
