Press release
Minister Naughton announces details of additional funding for special schools
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Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Hildegarde Naughton today announced details of the arrangements to apply for the application of the additional targeted supports for special schools announced in Budget 2024.
Special schools provide an education for children and young people with the most significant special educational needs. A key feature of Budget 2024 is the provision of an additional €11 million specifically targeted at these schools. This additional funding provides for:
- the removal of the current 15 teacher threshold for the appointment of Administrative Deputy Principals in special schools and
- a further 100 teaching posts targeted at special schools with post-primary aged students
These additional funds further enhance the investment in our education system and reflect the government’s commitment to a quality inclusive school system and improved learning outcomes for every student.
The additional Administrative Deputy Principal posts will be instrumental in assisting principals with leadership and management functions and to support learning and parental and community engagement.
89 special schools will benefit from the additional Administrative Deputy Principal posts from September next.
Over 50% of the students in special schools are aged 13 years and over.
The additional post-primary teaching posts will facilitate special schools to deliver a greater range of national curriculum subjects at junior and senior cycle, providing access to programmes that are age and stage appropriate, and that build on individual strengths and promote progression and transition.
The additional posts have been converted into a bank of post-primary teaching hours (co-operation hours) and will be allocated to schools on a pro-rata basis, in accordance with the number of students aged 13 and over in the school.
There are a number of special schools who already benefit from and have access to post-primary co-operation hours and/or post-primary part-time specialist hours. In the interest of fairness and an equitable distribution of the overall allocation available, any pre-existing allocation will form part of the consideration to determine any future allocation to schools.
However, if the allocation of the additional hours referenced above determines that the number of post-primary aged students in these schools warrants an additional allocation, the existing hours available to the school will be increased accordingly.
There will be no reduction applied to existing allocations.
88 special schools will benefit from a new or increased allocation of post-primary teaching hours.
Minister Naughton said:
“Budget 2024 makes the biggest-ever commitment, in real, financial and percentage terms, to students with special educational needs and their families. The detail of the targeted measures for special schools announced today is designed to help support the 9,000 students in special schools to thrive at school and realise the full extent of their potential.
“I want to acknowledge in particular the support of Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) and each of the Education and Training Board (ETB)s nationwide who, together with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), have partnered with my department to support the delivery of the additional post-primary posts to special schools.
“Each special school will be aligned with their local ETB, providing access to a support model for teacher supply in relevant curricular areas. All matters relating to the recruitment, assignment and payment of the teachers concerned will be managed by the designated ETB.
“I am particularly pleased at the opportunities this support model will provide for in terms of the potential for teachers and students to work across both special and mainstream schools/classes facilitating the potential for building capacity and sharing of expertise across mainstream and special school settings. The provision of these additional post-primary teaching posts will also assist special schools in being ready to offer the new Senior Cycle Level 1 and Level 2 modules which are currently in development as part of Senior Cycle redevelopment. These new posts and curriculum pathways at Senior Cycle will also support students in our special schools to transition to available further education and training opportunities and employment opportunities after school.”
Department Circular 0028/2024 contains further detail in relation to the measures referenced above and will issue to special schools and their managerial authorities today, 22 April.
