Ms Áine O'Keeffe:

The Tusla education support service is responsible for receiving the notification with regard to reduced school days. In the last published report, which is published by the Department of education, there were 1,275 children in general on a reduced school day in that school year. Of those, 79 were from the Traveller community. I have not had an opportunity to read the article in The Journal, but it is really important that we receive notifications of every instance of use of a reduced school day. Based on the numbers given, there is potentially some underreporting in the last school year, or it may be that they are being reported now.

It is important to say in answer to the Deputy's question that we have a small team of three educational welfare officers who follow up on every notification we receive. All 1,275 parents or caregivers will have received a phone call from one of my EWOs to check if they have given consent, whether they are happy with the reduced school day and whether there is a plan to return the child to a full timetable within six weeks. If they are not returned to the full timetable within six weeks, they have to be renotified to us and their understanding of the purpose of the use of a reduced school day must be checked along with the questions and queries they might have with regard to the return to a full timetable. The same educational welfare officer will then phone the school and engage with school leadership and whoever it is important engage with in the school to set out the parameters of what is allowable. They will discuss with them the plans to return that child to a full school day, working with the parents.

We have been collecting this data since January 2022. We are starting to get a picture of what is going on but where we hear numbers that do not fit with published reports, its important to remind everyone that there is a requirement to notify us and that there is a follow-up, with both school and family. All children should be in school for the full school day. The rationale for my service is to support a child to be in their classroom and learning for a full day.