Special Schools

Special schools provide education to children and young people from age 4 to 18, employ both primary and post-primary teachers and support students through the delivery of primary and post-primary programmes. Most special schools have both primary and post-primary students enrolled.

Special schools are resourced by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) on the basis of an annual review of their enrolment and the profile of the children and young people enrolled in them. Information on the NCSE’s supports for special schools can be found on the NCSE’s website here.

Ireland’s policy framework for the education of students with special educational needs is based on the continuum of educational provision. The continuum ranges across mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. Placement decisions for students are generally based on the resources available in these settings, and the complexity of a student’s needs.

Special schools, who provide for children with complex needs, were originally established under a particular designation of student need, but some schools have diversified and respond to a broader range of students’ needs from within their respective catchment areas.

The priority for special schools is to ensure that sufficient and appropriate placements are provided for students who have the most complex needs and the highest support requirements.

It is the department’s role to develop policy for special schools and provide guidance to:

• boards of management
• patrons
• school leaders
• school staff

There are currently 134 schools which fall under the broad categorisation of ‘special schools’, supported by NCSE, nationwide:

• 124 special schools
• 7 hospital schools
• 3 schools attached to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) units

The 124 special schools include 4 new special schools opening for the 2024/2025 school year;

20578W - Cara Community Special School

20579B - Limerick Community Special School

20580J - Gorey Hill School

20581L - Craddockstown School

The contact details and location of special schools is available on the NCSE’s school information map.. This includes the contact details of the school’s regional special educational needs officers (SENOs).

• Ministers Foley and Naughton announce the establishment of an Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS)
• Government approves pilot for enhanced in-school therapy supports in 16 special schools commencing in Dublin and Cork.
• Minister Naughton announces details of additional funding for special schools
• Ministers Foley and Madigan announce four new special schools to provide more places for students with special educational needs
• Circular 0032/2019 Appointment of Administrative Deputy Principal and Staffing Arrangements in Special Schools for the 2019/2020 school year
• Ministers Foley and Madigan announce two new special schools as part of forward planning for 2023/24
• Autism Good Practice Guidance for Schools – Supporting Children and Young People