Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 May 2005
471 Ms O’Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science if she has received reports from the National Educational Welfare Board on the progress made in addressing absenteeism from school through the work of educational welfare officers; if so, the statistics which are available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14288/05]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Education (Welfare) Act 2000 established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.
The board has indicated that a total of 17,878 new cases were opened during 2004. These refer to children who had significant absences from school and about whom there was concern. I understand that actions by the board resulted in 8,616 of these cases being closed by the end of December 2004 leaving 9,262 on hands in January 2005.
I also understand that the board issued the first school attendance notices, SANs, to parents in March 2005. SANs are legal notices requiring the parent to send the child to a named school for a specified period of time. They are the first step in taking legal action against parents who have failed over time to co-operate with educational welfare officers to ensure that their children attend school and where the board considers that parents could do more to uphold their children's right to an education.
