My Department gives assistance to parents where children are suspended indefinitely or expelled from schools. In cases when its assistance is sought, my Department endeavours, through a process of consultation with the schools and through the inspectorate, to secure a suitable school placement.
As suspension and expulsion from school are matters for each school authority, my Department has no centralised information on the numbers of pupils who may have been suspended indefinitely or expelled from primary and second level schools. Consequently the information requested by the Deputy is not available.
The Education Act, 1998 provides that each school board of management must publish the policy of the school concerning admission to and participation in the school, including the policy of the school relating to the suspension or expulsion of students.
Each board of management is responsible for formulating, in consultation with parents, a fair and efficient code of behaviour. This code should ensure that the individuality of each child is accommodated, while acknowledging the right of each child to education in a relatively disruption free environment. This code should include provision for dealing with serious breaches of discipline and continuously disruptive pupils.
My Department has issued guidelines to boards of management to assist them in discharging their obligations in the area of school discipline. These guidelines were drawn up following consultation with representatives of management, teachers and parents, and are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the particular needs of the school. These guidelines lay considerable stress on the use of expulsion only as a last resort.
Under the rules of national schools, no pupil can be struck off the rolls for breaches of discipline without the prior consent of the patron and unless alternative arrangements are made for the enrolment of the pupil at another suitable school.
The Education Act has also made provision for new appeal procedures, which provide for appeal to the Secretary General of my Department, in order to address grievances at school level, including suspension for more that 20 school days in any school year, or expulsion. These procedures will bring a greater transparency to decisions by schools in relation to long-term suspensions or expulsion and also promote fair procedures at school level. In particular, the right to appeal to a national appeals committee in relation to such decisions by schools will bring a better balance to the rights and obligations of all concerned.
