AQW 624/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 26/05/2022
Answered On Date: 15/06/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education (i) to outline the criteria that is used to place a child with a Statement of Special Educational Needs in a post-primary school; and (ii) whether that process takes into account the physical space needed for both the child and their classroom assistant.

Answer:

Where the Education Authority (EA) makes a statement in a case where the parent of a child concerned has expressed a preference for a grant-aided school pursuant to Article 44 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and Paragraph 5 of Schedule 2 to the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, the EA shall specify the name of that school in the statement unless:

The school is unsuitable to the child’s age, ability or aptitude or to his special educational needs, or;

The attendance of the child at the school would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for the children with whom he would be educated or the efficient use of resources.

The legislation is not drafted in such a way as to allow for consideration of the collective effect or impact of the admission of a number of pupils with statements of SEN on resources, including physical space, or on the efficient instruction of other children. Nor is the legislation drafted in such a way as to allow any further filtering of admissions, beyond that which is expressly set out above.

Children with a Statement of SEN are ‘supernumerary’ to the enrolment numbers and admissions numbers fixed by the Department for each school.