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:
There are currently 130 schools which fall under the broad categorisation of ‘special schools’ nationwide:
The 120 special schools include the 2 new special schools announced for the current school year (2023/24) - one new school in Carrigtwohill, East Cork under the patronage of Cork ETB and the second in Grangegorman, Dublin 7 under the patronage of City of Dublin ETB.
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).