AQW 651/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 26/05/2022
Answered On Date: 14/06/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education whether her Department has any plans to ensure children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs are included in a school’s total pupil numbers instead of being referred to as supernumerary.

Answer:

My Department did examine this issue some years ago with the managing authorities and sectoral body representatives and consulted with schools and Trades Union Side (TUS) on a draft proposal. This work was discontinued as factors such as annual growth or decline in pupil numbers at individual schools and the increasing number of children presenting with statements resulted in changeable modelling outcomes from year-to-year. This would have created difficulties for schools to manage any flexibilities they had around approved enrolments and how they could manage available places and in the assessment of suitable school sizes when planning new builds or extensions to existing school stock. There are no plans to review this practice at this time.