Ms Caroline Keane:

Community Law and Mediation, CLM, is an independent community-based law centre that works to empower individuals experiencing disadvantage by providing free legal information and advice, legal representation and education and mediation services. We do this primarily in areas experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Our engagement through our free legal advice clinics, community education, outreach and research with communities experiencing disadvantage in Limerick city has highlighted to us the use of reduced timetabling, shortened school days and in-school suspensions as particularly prevalent forms of school exclusion. We also run a child law clinic in collaboration with the Children's Rights Alliance on a weekly basis nationally. It has also been identified through those clinics that reduced timetabling practices are prevalent nationally. As the committee will be aware, these practices operate outside the formal school suspension system for which there is mandatory recording and reporting of suspensions and a mechanism to appeal. Based on our experience, these practices disproportionately affect some of the most vulnerable groups of children in Ireland. These include children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, children with disabilities and children from the Traveller community. These children have been identified in research and successive Government policy instruments as being at a significantly heightened risk of early school leaving. The consistency of the experiences shared by different organisations, including organisations and groups representing Traveller and special needs children, on the prevalence of these exclusionary practices among these groups raises concerns around equality legislation.

CLM conducted research in collaboration with Southill Family Resource Centre last year based on the incidents reported to us at our weekly advice clinics in Limerick and throughout the country. We then held a round-table discussion to which we invited representatives from a range of agencies supporting families in disadvantaged communities in Limerick city and county. The findings from the round table were consistent across the board. We found that the prevalence of these practices is widespread. All participants at the round table had experience of unofficial exclusions and reported that they took various forms including pupils or students being sent home from school, being put on a reduced timetable, for example, signing the roll and staying in a designated area in a school for two hours, and being removed from class and sent to alternative rooms. The view of participants was that the practice disproportionately affected pupils or students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, the Traveller community and those with a disability. It was further found that there was no consistency in the manner in which these practices were implemented. It might be done by way of a phone call or text message to a parent. Participants were consistently of the view that there was little or no consultation with parents, guardians or pupils prior to the implementation of a reduced timetable; rather, it was imposed by the school with the threatened alternative being a formal suspension or exclusion. Round-table participants expressed the view that parents or guardians were often uninformed about their rights as a parent or guardian in light of the impact of this measure on the pupil's or student's education. While our research was limited in its scope, the findings were consistent with research conducted by Inclusion Ireland, which found that only a small number of parents, carers or guardians understood what a reduced timetable was or understood the possibility of appealing it. Only 27% were able to say that the educational welfare officer was aware of a child being on a reduced timetable. Inclusion Ireland also found that there were issues with communication and the language used to convey information to parents, carers and guardians who were almost always not informed of their children's rights. This often results in misunderstandings between them and schools, which damages relationships further.

We asked participants in our round table to consider the impact of these practices on a child's rights to education. Participants expressed the view that the use of reduced school hours timetables deprives children of their full academic and social skills and often results in an impact on a child's self-esteem, compassion and ambition to succeed in life. One participant expressed the view that it can have a long-term impacts, limiting children's options for the rest of their lives. CLM would, therefore, like to make a number of recommendations on foot of our own experiences. CLM proposes that the joint committee seek legal clarity on the status of the practice of reduced timetables. CLM recommends that the recording of a shortened school day or reduced timetable be included in the annual mandatory statutory returns to Tusla on school attendance data, as required for schools by section 21 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000. This data should be capable of disaggregation based on gender, disability and socio-economic background. CLM recommends also the elaboration and dissemination of national guidelines. We looked, for example, at Kent County Council's guidelines for schools as a model. Kent County Council requires that reduced timetables should only be used in exceptional circumstances and sets out stringent parameters relating to the use and implementation of the practice, including consultation and the consent of parent and an assessment of the impact and duration of the timetable.

We recommend the implementation of legislation to clarify the practice of reduced timetables, taking into consideration time limits; recording; reporting; alternative educational provision during exclusions, which is crucial; and greater consultation between the school, parent and appeals process. I thank the committee for this opportunity.