Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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418. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if legal obligations exist to ensure that there are reporting procedures to statutory authorities to ensure attendance at school in circumstances in which a child is of school-going age and does not attend school. [43471/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 sets out provisions to ensure that children who have not yet reached the age of 16 years receive a certain minimum education.

Section 2 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 defines a child as ‘a person resident in the State who has reached the age of 6 years and who – (a) has not yet reached the age of 16 years or (b) has not yet completed 3 years of post-primary education, whichever occurs later, but shall not include a person who has reached the age of 18 years’.

Under Section 21(4) of the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 a Principal of a recognised school is obliged to inform an Educational Welfare Officer of a child’s absence from a recognised school for the following 4 reasons;

(a) a student is suspended from a recognised school for a period of not less than 6 days,

(b) the aggregate number of school days on which a student is absent from a recognised school during a school year is not less than 20,

(c) a student's name is, for whatever reason, removed from the register referred to in section 20 by the principal of the school concerned, or

(d) a student is, in the opinion of the principal of the recognised school at which he or she is registered, not attending school regularly.

Per Section 21 (1) of the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, the principal of a recognised school shall cause to be maintained in respect of each school year a record of the attendance or non-attendance on each school day of each student registered at that school.

The statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) (formerly School Attendance Service) provides support to students across all recognised schools. The work of the statutory EWS service is targeted at those students experiencing attendance difficulties and is primarily preventative, with recourse to prosecution where this is deemed necessary to enable students to attend school.

Under section 22 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, each school is required to have a Statement of Strategy for School Attendance to support the engagement in learning of students attending that school which is to be submitted to Tusla. The Tusla Developing the Statement of Strategy for School Attendance - Guidelines for Schools (Tusla - The Child and family Agency, 2015)supports schools in preparing this statement and in improving attendance and retention rates.

The Education (Welfare) Act also provides that where a parent chooses to educate, or have educated, his or her child in a place other than a recognised school he or she shall apply to Tusla to have the child concerned registered on the register maintained by Tusla in accordance with the provisions of section 14 of the Education (Welfare) Act.