Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 257: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the procedures in place in respect of school expulsions; if the newly established Education Welfare Board must authorise a school expulsion, even after a decision has been taken to expel a students by the local board of management; if, as a result of the passage of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, the ultimate power of school boards of management has been reduced or alerted in respect of school expulsions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15544/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There is no provision in the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 requiring the National Educational Welfare Board to authorise a school expulsion. Section 24 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 requires schools to notify their educational welfare officer before expelling any student. The educational welfare officer concerned is then required to make all reasonable efforts to ensure that provision is made for the continued education of the student, including consulting with the school authorities, the student concerned and his or her parents. In such instances, the role of the educational welfare officer is to bring together the relevant parties to try and identify a mutually agreeable solution to provide for the education of the student concerned.

Section 24(4) requires that a student shall not be expelled from a school before the passing of 20 school days following the receipt of such a notification by the educational welfare officer. However, this requirement is without prejudice to the right of the board of management to take such other reasonable measures as it considers appropriate to ensure that good order and discipline are maintained in the school and that the safety of students is secured.

Section 23 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 requires all schools to have in place a code of behaviour specifying: (a) the standards of behaviour that shall be observed by each student attending the school; (b) the measures that may be taken when a student fails or refuses to observe those standards; (c) the procedures to be followed before a student may be suspended or expelled from the school concerned; (d) the grounds for removing a suspension imposed in relation to a student; and (e) the procedures to be followed relating to notification of a child's absence from school.

Under this section of the Education Welfare Act, the school principal is required, before registering a child in the school, to provide the child's parents with a copy of the code of behaviour and may, as a condition of registering the child, require his or her parents to confirm in writing that the code is acceptable to them and that they will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the child will comply with the code.

Each board of management is responsible for formulating, in consultation with parents, a fair and efficient code of behaviour. This code should ensure that the individuality of each child is accommodated, while acknowledging the right of each child to education in a relatively disruption free environment. This code should include provision for dealing with serious breaches of discipline and continually disruptive pupils.

My Department has issued guidelines to boards of management to assist them in discharging their obligations in the area of school discipline. These guidelines were drawn up following consultation with representatives of management, teachers and parents, and are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the particular needs of the school. These guidelines lay considerable stress on the use of expulsion only as a last resort.

Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 provides for an appeal to the Secretary General of my Department where a board of management of a school or a person acting on behalf of the board refuses to enrol a student, suspends a student for a cumulative total of more than 20 days in an academic year or expels a student from the school.

At post-primary level, appeals against permanent exclusions and suspensions make up approximately one third of all appeals lodged to date. Taking the years 2003 and 2004 together, the number of appeals which progressed to a hearing before an appeals committee were decided almost two-to-one in favour of the schools position.

At primary level, the overwhelming majority of appeals under section 29 of the Education Act 1998 are against refusals to enrol rather than suspension or expulsion.