Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2024
64. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education if she will revise the new way of calculating special education resources to ensure that no school has a reduction in resources next year compared to this year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23889/24]
View answerThe Special Education Teaching Allocation model is in place since 2017 and it is a distribution model.
Its purpose is to ensure that the total number of Special Education Teaching (SET) hours available to the education system are allocated to each school based on its profile of need.
When the model was introduced in 2017 it was clearly outlined that each school’s profile would be reviewed and updated on 2/3 year basis.
Each school’s profile of need was updated in 2019 and 2022 at which time SET allocations were redistributed on the premise of the identified profile of need in each school. This is what has occurred in 2024 for the 2024/25 school.
In each of the previous updating of profiles, schools with an increased profile of need received additional SET hours while schools with a reduced profile of need saw a reduction in their SET hours.
The same process was applied this year for the coming school year and the percentage of schools with a reduction in SET hours for the 2024/25 school year is lower than in 2022.
It is important to note that in the 2024/25 allocation model that changes were primarily driven by the change in demographics in the primary sector.
The model allows resources to be reallocated from schools with reducing enrolments to those school where enrolments are growing. This is a critical function of the model so as to ensure that the totality of SET resources are focused on the areas of greatest need and aligns with changes in demographics etc.
As outlined in the SET Circular for the 2024/25 school year, the current SET allocation model was introduced in 2017 and schools’ educational profiles were updated in 2019 and again in 2022.
Following consultations with our education partners it was identified that the intervals between updates to school profiles historically has meant that the model may not have had the capacity to respond to the needs of schools, particularly new and developing schools, to the extent required.
The decision to move to annual updating of school profiles with effect from 2024/25 school is intended to have a twofold effect, in greater consistency and stability to schools in terms of their allocation from year to year and will make the model more sensitive to changes in an individual school’s enrolment and educational teaching needs profile, and adjustments will be applied in a more timely manner.
It will also allow schools to plan the deployment of their resources more efficiently, with greater stability in allocations as the level of change in allocations compared with a two year cycle is likely to be much reduced. The model will utilise the most up to date information available each year.
