SENAC (Special Education Needs Advice Centre)

Special Educational Needs Legislation The law dealing with Special Education in Northern Ireland is: • The Education Order (Northern Ireland)1996 • The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Act (2016) • The Special Educational Needs and Disability Order (SENDO) (NI) 2005 • The SEN Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 • The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs 1998 The Code of Practice The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs (1998) and The Supplement to the Code of Practice (2005) • The SEN Code of Practice is the statutory 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. • The current Code of Practice and the Supplement to the Code of Practice should be read together. This will provide a full understanding of the procedures, principles and practices and how they relate to a child’s needs and situation. A new Code of Practice, issued following the SEN Review, is currently in development and will be issued in due course.

At this point, the current 1998 Code is still the legal framework. The current 1998 Code of Practice is available on SENAC’s website https://senac.co.uk/advice-useful-reading/