Skip to main content
Normal View

School Attendance

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Questions (416)

Gary Gannon

Question:

416. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education the number of absence reports over 20 days recorded by the Tusla education support service, TESS, in the 2020-21 academic year to date; and if there has been an increase in the number of absence reports over 20 days to TESS compared to this time in 2020 in the 2019-2020 academic year. [1635/21]

View answer

Written answers

Tusla Education Support Service has received 1512 referrals up to the end of November 2020 for the academic year 2020/2021. This is an increase of 35% on the same period in the previous academic year.

Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) has a statutory responsibility to intervene when a parent/guardian is failing or neglecting to causing his or her child to attend school. TESS views all school attendance referrals from a child welfare perspective with the intention of finding solutions that will enable and support students to attend, participate and be retained in education. Since Covid-19 first impacted schools in March, 2020 TESS has adopted a child welfare and supportive approach in relation to all children and families where the school attendance of students has been directly impacted by Covid-19.

I can assure the deputy and all parents that TESS will continue to look at all school attendance cases with a compassionate and child welfare centred approach for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. My desire is to ensure that all students have access to education and TESS is available to work with any student or family in need of support.

Top
Share