Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 December 2020
459. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of school absences recorded in the State in each of the past three years; the number of school absences recorded in north County Kildare in particular since the outbreak of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44501/20]
View answerUnder Section 21 (6) of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 schools are required submit a report to the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) on the levels of attendance at that school during the immediately preceding school year within 6 weeks of the end of that school year. TESS holds this data on school attendance at a County level.
The most recent published data on the number of school absences recorded in the State held by TESS is for the school year 2017/2018. TESS have informed my Department that there were 5,807,744 absences recorded for Primary School children and 4,934,256 in Post Primary. This is a national total of 10,742,000 of days lost to absence for the 2018/2019 school year. The total absencesfor the 2017/2018 school year in County Kildare was 96,043.
Schools have recently submitted data regarding the 2019/2020 academic year which is currently being collated and data regarding the 2020/2021 academic year will not be submitted by schools to TESS until early 2021.
