Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the CSO criteria he plans to use to decide which new schools will be able to access the DEIS scheme for the first time. [37202/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As you may be aware, a process to review the DEIS Programme which began last year is nearing completion and it is my intention to publish a new Action Plan for Educational Inclusion in the coming weeks.

The review process, is looking at all aspects of DEIS, including the range and impact of different elements of the School Support Programme, the potential for innovation within and between schools and its scope for increased integration of services provided by other Departments and Agencies, in order to improve effectiveness.

Among the measures to be included in the plan are a series of pilot schemes aimed at introducing measures which have been shown to work well in improving results for disadvantaged children and students. The plan is expected to include targeted measures in the area of:

School leadership;

School networks and clusters;

Teaching methodologies;

Integration of schools and other State supports within communities;

Greater use of Home School Community Liaison services.

A new assessment framework is also being developed using centrally held CSO and DES data for the identification of schools for inclusion in a new School Support Programme.  The relevant CSO data is based on information drawn from the National Census of Population and includes socio-economic variables that are known predictors of poorer educational outcomes.  The number of schools to be included in a new School Support Programme will be determined by this proposed new identification process which will assess all schools in the country.  Schools will not be required to make an application for assessment as the methodology to be applied involves the use of centrally held data already available to my Department.

Implementation of actions arising from the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion will begin in the 2017/18 school year, and will be a continuing theme in our wider Annual Action Plan for Education.

Further information on the DEIS Review process is available on my Department’s website at:

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