Darren O'Rourke
Ceist:423. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education to provide a breakdown of the number of SNAs employed in Meath in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form. [44518/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 5 November 2024
Ceisteanna (423)
Freagraí scríofa
Special needs assistants (SNAs) play a central role in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs into mainstream education, special classes and special schools ensuring that these students can access education to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.
The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs. Allocations are provided to schools on the basis of the school's overall profile of need. As a result, the number of students supported by SNAs varies from school to school.
When the NCSE allocates a SNA post, the board of management as the employer, is responsible for filling the vacancy. The decision on whether to employ a full time SNA to fill a full-time post or to employ an equivalent number of part time SNAs rests with the employer. Therefore data on the number of SNAs employed is held at a local level.
The NCSE publish their allocation of SNA posts annually on their website. For ease of reference these allocations are broken down by county and school type. This data is available at the following link: www.ncse.ie/set-hours-and-sna-allocations
We have been steadily building on the number of SNAs in our education system. At the end of the 2023 school year there was just over 21,000 SNAs in schools, double the number there were in 2011. Budget 2024 provided for 1,216 new SNA posts and Budget 2025 for a further 1,600.