SET Guidelines and supporting documentation to aid schools in supporting Children/Young people with Special Education Needs

This webpage provides ease of access for schools, parents/guardians, children and young people in relation to the application and deployment of Special Education Teachers (SET) in mainstream classes in primary and post primary schools.

Schools can access a series of documents to aid them in supporting children and young people with special education needs in their mainstream classes by clicking on the relevant link below.

• The revised Guidelines, underpinning circular 0064/2024, replace those issued in 2017. They have been developed over the past eighteen months by the Inspectorate, The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) in conjunction with the Department. The updated Guidelines are provided to aid schools to support children and young people in mainstream classes with Special Educational Needs.

• The Guidelines incorporate existing good practices evident in schools along with feedback provided, during their development, from our educational partners.

• The Indicators of Effective Practice are provided for schools to help the school identify areas of current effective practice, build on these effective practices and prioritise areas for development.

This unifies all key documentation into a single location, that schools require, to support all children with special education needs and the guidelines provide further links to other resources and supports available to schools.

Under the Parents/Guardian area below is a short leaflet which gives an overview of the Special Education Teacher allocation and deployment process which may help parents/guardians.

Finally for children and young people in our mainstream schools they may access short explanations of the Special Education Teaching support. This may also help children and young to understand that everyone needs help from time to time, and that’s ok.

In early 2025, we will provide:

• Examples of Student Support files and Student Support plans are provided, which illustrate how the Problem-Solving Process, outlined in Section 2 of the Indicators of Effective Practice for Schools, was used to identify strengths, interests and needs of the children and young people.

• A set of templates to support schools which they may find useful in supporting children and young people with Special Education Needs.

• A series of supports will be made available to assist schools in the implementation of effective practice in the following key areas:

• Introduction to The Guidelines
• The Continuum of Support Framework
• Key actions in the provision of special education teaching support
• The Student Support File and The Student Support Plan
• Effective timetabling practices in post-primary schools

Supporting Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Classes – Guidelines for Schools- Primary/Post-Primary

Guide for Children: Special Education Teaching

Guide for Young People: Special Education Teaching

Guide for Parents or Guardians: Special Education Teaching