Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will grant full funding for a full-time home-school liaison officer for a school (details supplied) in County Louth. [28580/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the action plan for educational inclusion provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). including. DEIS also brings together and builds upon a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage, including the provision of Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) services.

The process of identifying schools for participation in DEIS was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate. 673 primary and 203 post primary schools were invited to participate in DEIS.

A review mechanism was put in place to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in DEIS but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage which was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The review process operated under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The school mentioned by the Deputy did not make an application for a Review.

Home School Community services Liaison were extended to all schools selected to participate in DEIS, that did not have HSCL previously. Furthermore, schools previously in the scheme but not selected under DEIS, will continue to receive HSCL services in line with their level of disadvantage and size of the school for the duration of the DEIS initiative.