I propose to take Questions Nos. 1085 and 1086 together.
The Educational Welfare Service of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency has advised my Department that the Agency does not hold data on the number of post-primary students that are placed on reduced timetables.
Tusla has not issued guidelines to schools on the rationale of placing students on reduced timetables. In certain cases where the number of hours missed in school due to a reduced timetable equates to 20 cumulative days in the current school year, it may be viewed as a de facto suspension.
Where the total number of days for which the student has been suspended in the current school year reaches twenty days, the parents, or a student aged over eighteen years, may appeal the suspension under section 29 of the Education Act 1998, as amended by the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2007.