Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
818. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Education the number of expulsions that have been recorded from special schools in each of the past five years by county in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31909/21]
View answerIn accordance with the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 schools are obliged to report on school attendance, and data on non-attendance in primary and post-primary schools at the aggregated level are collected by Tusla through the Annual Attendance Report (AAR) and, also at the student level through the Student Attendance Report (SAR).
This latest report published presents data for the academic year 2017/18 and is available on Tusla’s website at https://www.tusla.ie/uploads/content/Analysis_of_School_Attendance_Data_in_Primary_and_Post-Primary_Schools_2017-2018.pdf
All special schools are recognised primary schools. Expulsions are rare, particularly in primary schools. In the 2017/18 school year there were only 30 expulsions in primary schools. It is not possible to provide the expulsion figures requested by the Deputy by county in order to protect the anonymity of the students expelled.
