AQW 25380/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 31/03/2025
Answered On Date: 08/04/2025
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail the number of appropriate school places that need to be found for children with a statement of special educational need for September 2025.

Answer:

The Education Authority (EA) has advised that:

Early planning assumptions for September 2025 showed that there was a need for circa 1300 places. While the EA has worked to increase the majority of this capacity across the school estate, there is an assumed pressure of circa 400 places remaining in advance of the new academic year.

The EA has now commenced a more intensive round of engagements, prior to Easter, with those schools in areas with the greatest demand for capacity to secure the remaining placements in advance of the new academic year.