Vol. 557 No. 3
96 Mr. Gogarty asked the Minister for Education and Science the steps he intends to take to ensure that students who were expelled and are reinstated by the appeals committee are allocated extra resources to help them. [21692/02]
Permanent exclusion from school is one of three categories of decision by a school's board of management that may be appealed to my Department's secretary general under section 29 of the Education Act, 1998. Appeals proceed through three phases – local resolution, facilitation and finally if a resolution has not been reached, to an appeal committee hearing. To date approximately half of all appeals lodged have been resolved at phase one or two and consequently have not proceeded to a hearing before an appeal committee.
An appeal committee does not make recommendations on resource allocation. When determining a case of an appeal that is upheld it may recommend that an assessment be carried out. In instances where this has occurred the appropriate resources have been provided.
