Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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361. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of educational welfare officers that are employed by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55845/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) has three strands namely the Statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two school support services the Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL) and the School Completion Programme (SCP). The three TESS strands work together collaboratively with schools, families and other relevant services to achieve the best educational outcomes for children and young people.

As of 30^thSeptember 2021, the sanctioned WTE Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) and Senior Educational Welfare Officer (SEWO) posts to Tusla are 93.13 EWO posts and 14 SEWO posts.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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362. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of cases educational welfare officers are currently and have previously been dealing with on 1 October in each of the past five years in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55846/21]

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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363. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children that educational welfare officers are dealing with have not attended school for more than a month, between one and two months, between two and three months, between four and five months, between five and six months and more than 6 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55853/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 362 and 363 together.

With regard to the request for data on cumulative months missed, Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) do not collect data in this format. The compilation of data in the format requested would require an extensive manual retrieval of information from individual files.

When referrals are received by the Tess team they are screened by a Senior Educational Welfare Officer. If a referral is incomplete the referral will be returned to the school seeking further information. All completed referrals are placed in priority order and are assigned to the EWO team accordingly. At any stage a principal can follow up with the EWS to ascertain the status of a referral.

Priority referrals are responded to immediately. They are in respect of children who do not have a school place or when a student is being expelled. Referrals not deemed to have the same urgency are allocated to an EWO as soon as possible. Response times will depend on the demand and resources available in any given area.

The number of cases being dealt with by EWOs on 1^stOctober in the last five years in tabular form is set out below.

No of EWO Open Cases on Oct 1st 2017-2021

- Oct-17 - 3,080

- Oct-18 - 3148

- Oct-19 - 3131

- Oct-20 - 2639

- Oct-21 - 3199

Data on School Attendance can be found on the TESS web site under Analysis of School Attendance Data at the following link, www.tusla.ie/services/educational-welfare-services/publications/research-and-statistics/

The last published report on Analysis of School Attendance data is for the 2017 /2018 academic year. The report for the 2018/2019 academic year is currently being finalised.