Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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555. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children under age 15 who have left the school system during each of the past five years who were not on the register of children receiving education in a recognised school. [41501/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The recognition of schools is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills under the Education Act 1998.

The Child and Family Agency, established in 2014 under the aegis of my Department, has statutory responsibility to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.

The Child and Family Agency maintains a register of those children in receipt of an education in a place other than a recognised school. In the main, these are children who are being home-schooled or registered in an independent school. I am advised that there were 8234 children registered as being in receipt of education in such schools at the end of 2013, while 897 children from 663 families were registered as being home-educated at that date.

Information is not maintained by the Agency on the numbers of children who are attending recognised schools or the number of children under age 15 who have left the school system and who had been attending a recognised school under the Education Act, 1998.

The Educational Welfare Service of the Child and Family Agency is a statutory service supporting regular school attendance for all school age children and young people. Where school attendance problems arise for a child, the Agency concentrates on finding solutions within a collaborative intervention framework involving children and their families, schools and other relevant agencies. This work of the Educational Welfare Service falls into two key categories, namely the provision of a brief intervention designed to resolve a school attendance issue with a child before it escalates or the provision of intensive intervention, where problems of poor school attendance are manifestation of more complex and deep rooted issues for the child and his family which require significant time and on-going support from the Educational Welfare Officer to ensure progress. I am advised that more than 17,000 brief interventions were provided to children in 2013, while more than 2,400 children received an intensive intervention.