Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Thomas Byrne said two groups are involved but it is also being used on children who are not from a Traveller background and who do not have a diagnosis of special educational needs. There is a cohort of students for whom the reason is explicitly behavioural. There is no special educational support or special needs assistants, SNAs, for them. Suspension or a reduced timetable is seen as a behavioural tool for them.

There seem to be a lot of issues but one of the main ones is the lack of data, which has been mentioned. Who makes the decision that it is to the benefit of the child? In all of the reports I have seen I have never read about a case conference. A parent has never told me there had been a series of meetings where the student had been placed at the centre of the conversation, whether care workers, schools, youth clubs, educational support workers or Traveller advocates were involved. Somebody makes an assessment but on what is it based? How is it suggested this is to the benefit of the child? There might be extreme anxiety or a situation where a child might need to go home early on a particular day, but not as an indefinite action. Who is entitled to make this decision? Is it fair to say all parents agree to it? Do they agree to it because of the power imbalance and fear of losing the child's school place? The fact it is not reported to Tusla seems like a real manipulation. If the child was outright suspended it would be reported to Tusla. We see that some schools suspend more children than others, but a reduced timetable does not have to be reported. This is why we cannot collect the data. In some situations there seems to be a concerted effort to hide the fact that reduced timetables are being used as a way to mark the child as having attended in the morning and then ringing someone to come to get the child. This means no mechanism is kicked off.

We need to look at how schools are supported. While it is completely different from the education system, I worked as a community worker for a long time and supported women suffering from addiction. Many organisations and bodies were involved in supporting them and their children in school. We never made decisions on their lives without interacting with all of the other services involved in the child's care, whether dealing with behavioural issues or the support they received in the community. We made a full holistic needs assessment based on everything about the child's life and not just on whether it will make the classroom life a bit easier. Sometimes the benefit to the student is used in a way to make parents feel they are taking responsibility but the benefit is not measured.

We have had numerous reports on the misuse of resource hours. Children are put on reduced timetables while SNAs are writing to us in bundles about being asked to wash teachers' cars. Why are additional resource hours not being used to support the more vulnerable groups that need assistance in the school system? Mr. O'Connor stated two thirds of the people surveyed receive fewer than three hours of education a day. If we measure this over a lifetime, how many years of education do people miss? Have they reached the educational age of 12 when they move on from primary school? Issues with Traveller children and behavioural issues mostly happen in secondary school. How do we move forward? How do we enforce the collection and reporting of data? How do we create a system whereby all of the bodies involved in a child's life and care make that decision and that there is real consent on a child going or not going to school?