Officials of my Department and the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, met with a number of post-primary schools in Limerick city on 16 September to discuss the cases of 20 children who were then without a post-primary school place in the city for the current school year.
The parents of 12 of these children had expressed a desire that their children attend a mainstream school. Agreement was reached on the offer of a school place to these 12 children. The NEWB is currently engaged with eight other young people who dropped out of the mainstream education system in previous years. These young people have been in receipt of intermittent education provision since dropping out. The NEWB is working closely with my Department to ensure that these young people have access to an alternative structured educational provision.