Special needs budget for schools to increase by 4%

Almost 240 extra resource teacher posts are being allocated to primary and secondary schools next year to cater for children with special educational needs.

The 4 per cent increase in such posts will add an estimated €15 million to the annual budget for special educational needs, now standing at €1.4 billion or 15 per cent of the overall budget of the Department of Education and Skills.

The extra posts are a response to growth in the student population, increased diagnosis of complex needs and a recent decision of Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan to extend resource hours to children with Down syndrome.

The posts have been announced in tandem with a pilot project starting next September which will test a new model for allocating resource teachers who work alongside classroom teachers, helping pupils with special needs.

Last February the Minister decided against a national roll out the new model, which had been recommended by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

While the model was aimed at delivering greater equity, Ms O’Sullivan said “there had not been sufficient time to address all of the concerns which have been raised in advance of the 2015 school year.”

The trial project will involve about 50 schools: 30 from the primary sector and 20 from post-primary.

None will experience a reduction in their resource teaching allocation during the pilot. However, they will gain allocations based on their academic and social profile - developed through school surveys conducted last year.

The department said “the pilot will test the utilisation of resources by schools and the distribution and management of those resources by schools to support all pupils with learning needs in schools, taking into account their level of need, regardless of any particular disability diagnosis”.

The necessity to get diagnosis of a disability was identified by the NCSE as a barrier to children from lower-socio economic backgrounds who could not seek professional help privately.

The biggest change for next year will be the allocation of 2.5 resource teacher hours per week for each child categorised with “mild” Down syndrome.

Children with Down syndrome who are diagnosed with a “moderate” or more severe learning disability are unaffected by the rule change.

While this represents an added investment by the department, qualifying children are continuing to get only 85 per cent of recommended resource hours due to a three-year-old budget cutback.

In total, 6,454 resource teacher posts are being allocated for 2015/16, which represents an increase of 237 posts on last year and 554 posts (9.4 per cent) over a two-year period.

“I welcome the fact, that even in the constrained economic circumstances we have faced in recent years, we have been able to continue to meet the needs of children with special educational needs attending our schools.”

Roughly one resource teacher post is being created for every 10 children with Down syndrome now qualifying for support.

The allocations, published on the NCSE website on a school-by-school basis on Thursday, are based on applications made to date by schools. Late applications can be made ahead of a second round of allocations in October.