Legislation and Guidance

• The Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 – Provides the current definitions for SEN and SEN Provision.
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 – Strengthens the rights of children with SEN to be educated in mainstream education.
• The Education (Special Educational Needs) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 – Legislation regarding statutory assessments and statements.
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 – Defines the duties of schools and the EA relating to SEN.

The SEN Code of Practice is an important guidance document that all statutory educational settings/schools must follow when making decisions about identifying, assessing and making provision for children/young people who have, or may have, special educational needs.

• All educational settings/schools must follow the guidance as set out in The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs (1998) and The Supplement to the Code of Practice (2005)
• Disability Discrimination Code of Practice for Schools (2005) explains the duties placed upon all educational settings/schools by SENDO.
• Every School A Good School (2009) represents the Department of Education’ s (DE) school improvement policy of “promoting the importance of high standards across the school system”.
• A Resource File for Schools to Support Children with Special Educational Needs (2011) , issued by DE, is for mainstream schools and is a key SEN guidance document for educational settings/schools.
• A Resource File for Schools to Support Children with Special Educational Needs (2017)  - additional sections of the 2011 Resource file.
• Inspection Self-Evaluation Framework (2017) guidance provided by DE to help schools evaluate the quality of their provision, the strengths of the school and where improvements need to be made.
• General Teaching Council Northern Ireland is the professional body of the teaching profession in Northern Ireland.