Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Oct 2000

Vol. 523 No. 5

Written Answers. - School Placements.

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

I am very much aware of the difficulties parents of children with histories of behavioural problems may have in seeking entry to a school of their choice. The issues of access to education and school attendance are related to that of early school leaving. This is a complex and difficult area and in order to make progress we must tackle the problem on a number of fronts.

Enrolment in primary and post-primary schools is the responsibility of the managerial authority of individual schools in the first instance. For this reason my Department has no information on the numbers of children who may have been refused entry to the school of their choice for any reason, including that of having a history of behavioural problems in previous schools.

The Education Act, 1998, has made provision for new appeal procedures in order to address grievances at school level, including a refusal to enrol, and my Department is working on the implementation of these at present. The full implementation of the Act will bring a greater transparency to decisions by schools in relation to enrolment and also promote fair procedures at school level. In particular, the right to appeal to a national appeals committee in relation to a refusal to enrol will bring a better balance to the rights and obligations of all concerned.

My Department gives assistance in securing school placements for pupils out of school. It liaises with school authorities with a view to hav ing the pupils back in full-time education as soon as possible.

The structure of the current system for monitoring school attendance is such that I cannot, at present, provide details of the number of children outside education. The enforcing authorities for the School Attendance Act, 1926, in Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Dún Laoghaire are the respective corporations or councils. Outside these areas, the gardaí are the enforcing authorities. There is no national authority to monitor or co-ordinate school attendance data at a national level.

I am concerned that there are children who may not be in school, whatever the reason. The recently enacted Education Welfare Act provides a new framework to address school attendance. The Act provides for a comprehensive range of measures to address the problem of non-school attendance. Among the key objectives is the establishment of a single national authority with responsibility to co-ordinate action in relation to school attendance on a countrywide basis. The focus of the national authority will be the provision of assistance and support, through locally based educational welfare officers, to schools and families rather than on penalties for non-attendance at school.

The Act also includes specific measures for the early identification and support of children at risk of dropping out of the school system. Accordingly, it will be possible to address in a structured way the problem of early school leaving. The educational welfare officer will be responsible for dealing with students who exhibit patterns of irregular attendance at school. These officers will seek to identify underlying problems causing such irregular attendance and to support and assist students, and their families, experiencing difficulties with school attendance.

However, legislative solutions are not in themselves enough and it is vital that we also have in place strategies to encourage and support students to remain in education to the conclusion of senior cycle. The stay in school initiative is designed to focus resources on problems where the drop out rate is most acute. At the core of this new strategy is the empowerment of schools to devise plans to address the particular problems that they themselves identify.

This issue is not a simple one and in order to have a real chance of success the solution must be wide ranging and include strategies for identification, balancing of rights, statutory safeguards and school empowerment.