Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
509. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education the cost of every ten additional home school community liaison positions; how many are currently in place; the current financial commitment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37017/23]
View answerThe Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services, with a view to supporting improved attendance, participation and retention. A HSCL Coordinator is a teacher from a participating school who is released from teaching duties, for a maximum of five years, in order to work intensively with and support parents and guardians. The overarching goal of the HSCL Coordinator is to improve educational outcomes for children through their work with the key adults in the child’s life. HSCL is a school-based intervention provided to address the needs of students and their families in disadvantaged areas through acknowledging and developing the role of the parent as prime educator. This is achieved through targeting the families of students most at risk of educational disadvantage and putting in place a range of appropriate support interventions.
Currently, all DEIS Urban Primary and DEIS Post Primary schools are included in the HSCL Scheme, which serves 693 schools. The scheme is delivered by 530 full-time HSCL Coordinators who are teachers in these schools and assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or clusters of schools, catering for approximately 207,000 pupils. The average salary cost for one HSCL Coordinator position based on mid point of the salary scale is circa €58,000.
