Skip to main content
Normal View

School Discipline

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021

Wednesday, 21 April 2021

Questions (956)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

956. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education the reason a determination was made on one of the section 29 appeals by persons (details supplied) given the appeals of both were submitted together and with the same documentation from the post-primary school; if a determination will be expedited on the rejected appeal; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18560/21]

View answer

Written answers

Under Section 29 of the Education Act 1998, an appeal may be made to the Department of Education in respect of a decision by a school Board of Management or a person acting on behalf of a Board of Management to permanently exclude a student from the school, to suspend a student from attendance at the school for a period or periods totalling not less than 20 school days in a school year or to refuse to admit a student to the school.

The Deputy may be aware that the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 provided for the replacement of section 29 of the Education Act 1998 with sections 29A to 29F. Under the new arrangements for appeals taken in respect of refusal to admit due to the school being oversubscribed, the appeals committee conduct a paper based examination of all such appeals. Prior to these appeals being lodged the appellant must first seek a review by the schools board of management of their application for enrolment, which allows the school to consider if any error occurred in the schools processing of the enrolment application. When the appeals committee has considered these paper based appeals the outcome is to allow or disallow the appeal. Where appeals under this category are allowed a direction is given to the school to admit the student or adjust the ranking of the student on the waiting list as appropriate.

In accordance with the section 29(F) of the Education Act, 1998 an appeals committee shall refuse to hear or determine an appeal in certain circumstances, including where the applicant did not request a review by the board of management of the decision to refuse admission prior to submitting their appeal application to this Department. The necessity to seek a review by the board of management for this category of appeal is outlined in the procedures for hearing and determining appeals under section 29(1)(c)(i). Where a committee’s decision is to refuse to hear or determine an appeal, the applicant can request a review of this decision. The review will be carried out by a member of the section 29 appeals committee panel, who was not a member of the appeals committee that made the original decision to refuse to hear or determine the appeal after which the outcome of the review issues to the parent.

Appeals under section 29(1)(c)(ii) of the Education Act, 1998, where refusal is considered to be for reasons other than the school being oversubscribed, are examined by oral hearing. It is optional, but not mandatory, in these appeals to request a review by the school’s board of management prior to submitting the appeal to this Department. Following all oral hearings a preliminary decision issues to both parties and allows for an opportunity to submit observations on the preliminary decision to the appeals committee after which the committee issue their final decision.

As the Deputy can understand I can’t comment on the specific details of the two cases referred to by the Deputy, however, my officials have advised that both appeals have been concluded and the outcomes have been issued.

Tusla Education Support Services (TESS), the Educational Welfare Service of the Child and Family Agency, is the legal body which can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty or may require assistance in securing a school placement for their child. Contact details for TESS are available at the following link https://www.tusla.ie/tess/get-in-touch/ or by email at tessinfo@tusla.ie

Top
Share