The President of the Irish Primary Principals' Network has called on the Minister for Education to delay cutting any further Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts until the start of the new school year.
Speaking at the IPPN's annual conference, Pat Goff said if you pull the rug from children with special needs too early, the support system can collapse altogether.
A number of contracts for Special Needs Assistant are due to end today.
However, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said schools had been notified of the deadline in September and had time to make alternative arrangements.
He would not comment on how many Special Needs Assistant posts would be abolished as part of a current review of the process, but said media speculation that it was around 1,000 posts was not accurate.
The Minister said the review team is looking at schools and where the need is there for Special Needs Assistants then they would be provided.
However, he said where there is no need or diminishing requirements i.e. if a special needs child has moved to second level education, then changes would be made.
Meanwhile, the Minister has said that the list of primary schools that are to be allocated 100 extra teaching posts this school year will be published on the Department of Education website today.
Minister O'Keeffe said the posts, which were announced in the Renewed Programme for Government, will be allocated to primary schools that had increased enrolments this year.
Extra teachers will also go to the schools that lost out on a teaching post because of last year's pupil-teacher ratio change.
The Minister also announced that improvements will be made to the staffing schedule in medium to large schools, which he said were under the most pressure in relation to class size.
