Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 February 2026
111. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Education and Youth the way in which her Department oversees the consistency and transparency of NCSE decisions on SET and SNA allocations for post-primary schools; the mechanisms that exist to address cases where schools report unmet need; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11005/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to achieve their full potential.
For the 2026/27 school year there will be over 21,000 special educational teachers and close to 25,000 SNAs in our mainstream classes, special classes and special schools.
Each school receives a special education teaching allocation which is in addition to their mainstream teachers and teachers assigned to special classes within the school. The special education teacher allocation model is a standardised process that provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the learning needs of students in mainstream classes based on the individual learning needs profile. For the 2026/27 school year over 15,200 special education teachers will be allocated to mainstream classes.
Special needs assistants (SNAs) play a central role in the successful inclusion of students with significant care needs in schools by helping to ensure that these students can access an education to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.
It is the responsibility of the NCSE to manage the allocation of the SNAs to schools, and to ensure that these resources are allocated to the children with the greatest level of need.
In the case of both special education teachers and special needs assistants, it is accepted that any model which distributes resources requires to be flexible to allow for circumstances where additional need may arise. In these situations, schools can request the NCSE undertake a review of their allocation. There are clear processes in place for all of these reviews, which are available on the NCSE website. In recent years the NCSE have strengthened their processes to ensure that there is greater consistency of reviews nationwide and as a result of increased staffing have greater scope to undertake reviews in a timely and child-centred manner.
The number of SENOs has increased to 120 and each SENO works in a regional team reporting to a Team Manager who in turn reports to one of two National Coordinators within the NCSE. Each team is comprised of a number of professionals, including advisors, visiting teachers, therapists and behaviour practitioners. The teams operate under quality assurance standards in decision making on relevant processes which are aligned with total quality management principles of standardisation, ownership and continuous improvement. In addition as the teams in NCSE continue to embed, they are building strong relationships with schools and families to ensure a high quality service for children with special educational needs.
Building on this local knowledge, and using their expertise, where the NCSE identifies the need for additional resources, the identified increase is available to the school ahead of the relevant school year.
